Noble Burdens
by Rogue Amazon Boo
Summary: Naraku is dead but the wind tunnel remains. How far will Miroku journey to lift his curse? How much heartache can a slayer forgive? They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Miroku/Sango, InuYasha/Kagome *Story Complete*
1. Kaede's Dream

**A/N: Updated: Check it out yo! I've been nominated by the Feudal Association for the category of best Alt pairing romance! Thought that was kinda cool )**

Disclaimer: Not mine, although could have been fun, but since my mythological knowledge has a decidedly Western bent there really could have been no way I could have created them. So, props to Rumiku Takahashi, Shonen, and Viz Media.

A/N: Good lord but these two, as much as I adore them, gave me problems. This is the 4th incarnation of their story because no matter how many times I tried to beat them into submission they came back to bite me in the arse. I won't bore you with the details but I will say I am pleased with the way they turned out. Miroku is still lecherous and Sango is still annoying recalcitrant but somehow, someway they met in the middle. Now I need a drink, maybe a little diet coke with my Captain, and as always, enjoy.

A/N Cont: This story is a "what if" story that takes place after the anime. I have never read the manga so all plot points and character interpretation are solely from the anime so this story will diverge from the manga at that point.

A/N Redux: Also do I really need to explain the rating? There will be sexual situations and violence but I'm going to attempt to keep it tasteful…I did say attempt so bear with me. If I have to call a lemon a lemon, so be it, consider yourself warned and don't whine.

Noble Burdens

By

Rogue Amazon Boo

_**"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."**_

_**Hamlet - William Shakespeare**_

The days had grown shorter and the nights colder as late fall descended on Lady Kaede's village, bringing the deeper hints of a cold winter. The wise miko shifted in her sleep, feeling the chill in old joints and old bones. Her sleep had been restless of late and the priestess had felt a whisper of impending doom drifting lazily on the biting wind.

She wasn't surprised when he visited her in her dreams.

Kaede scowled, twisted in her slumber, and slowly the walls around her faded. She felt vertigo stretch her limbs and the deep howling wind grew louder as she descended. The old miko blinked her one good eye opened and found herself at the highest point of a vast mountainous region. She noticed that although the wind whipped her traditional robes around her weary body the bone deep cold did not penetrate.

She frowned and followed the dying rays of light to behold a castle of unsurpassed beauty and splendor nestled on the horizon. Suddenly, the miko clutched her stomach as a foul aura wafted from the deceptively beautiful edifice and she fought not to vomit.

"This be an evil place," she whispered.

"You were always astute, Lady Kaede. Even as a child."

She turned at the sound of the masculine voice addressing her and gave the newcomer one of her very rare smiles.

"Lord Komoku, what brings ye to me this night?"

The man; or more correctly, spirit behind her shot her a fierce grin, revealing strong white teeth. He was large, a warrior fully outfitted in armor that had been antiquated for many, many years. In his right hand he held a beautiful carved lance, the head of which was razor sharp and gleamed brightly in the setting sun.

He was one of the Shi Tenno, the guardians of the four cardinal directions, and a very old friend of the priestess.

"The same thing that always brings me to you, miko. I come with a warning."

Suddenly the world shifted and Kaede found herself standing next to Komoku in a richly appointed room.

A young man, or at least what appeared to be a young man, was standing before her looking into a scrying basin. He was naked and had his heavy erection in his hands, stroking languidly. She had been around much too long to let something as simple as a male masturbating embarrass her. Instead, she was much more interested in what the man was looking at while he pleasured himself.

Eyes narrowed, she shuffled forward to look into the jade basin and what she saw increased the feeling of dread that had been hovering in the air.

The image of a beautiful young woman rippled across the liquid surface. She was bathing in a hot spring, with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, gazing into the sky with such sad, sad eyes. The wind caressed her and she shivered while it whipped her long dark hair briefly to the side. The scar it reveled on her back was jagged and ugly, the way only wounds that had never healed properly appeared.

"Why be this man watching Sango?"

Komoku looked at the man with a slight expression of distaste.

"He parades as the fourth Lord Toyotomi, Hisao, but that is not his true name, for he is much older then he appears."

She narrowed her eyes, "Be he mortal?"

"Yes…and no."

She frowned at the deity; she hated when they spoke in riddles. Kaede's eyes shifted back to the basin and she continued to regard the being before her.

"What be he then?" Komoku shook his head.

"I am not permitted to answer that. I can tell you only this. A great evil has been slowly gaining power in this mountain. It has stretched and corrupted many generations. The taijiya is in great danger, as is the young houshi that even now journeys closer. They will face a great test together and they will need each other, for neither is strong enough to defeat this evil alone. You must tell the monk this."

"Ye can tell me nothing else?"

The guardian of the south smiled.

"The coins have summoned them. The Hunter's Moon will guide them. Their hearts will bind them. Love…never forgets."

Lady Kaede awoke with a start and slowly her breathing level returned to normal as her familiar hut came into focus. The fire had long died, leaving only the chilly night air. A gentle caress brushed her wrinkled cheek and was gone.

"I will be thy messenger, my Lord," she whispered into the night.

The night air swirled but did not whisper back.

* * *

The night sky always seemed much more infinite from the bow of a ship. Miroku sighed and placed his un-cursed hand under his head while he reclined on the hard wood of his current home and contemplated the cosmos. The ocean breeze ruffled his dark hair and the stars above twinkled brightly, like billions of scattered diamonds littering an inky black canvas.

He lay beneath the sky and unbidden he let his normally assiduous mind wander. He shouldn't have been surprised when it chose to betray his careful control and wander to her.

"Sango" he whispered. The deck of the great ship was empty tonight except for the one hand that was on watch in the crow's nest, but that man had long since drifted to sleep.

Miroku closed his eyes and immediately the woman he had tried to push from his ever tormented mind danced behind his eyelids. He pictured her as he always did; proud and beautiful, dressed in her traditional taijiya garb, strong astride Kirara, the nekomata that was her constant companion, with Hiraikotsu slung over one shoulder.

His Sango…bold, independent, and so achingly fierce and beautiful that he was sure that his heart would weep. He could see her long, dark hair, bound, and blowing in a long silk ponytail behind her. Her deep brown eyes, focused in battle.

These Portuguese sailors told tales of many cultures he would never had experienced had fate not driven him to leave the country of his birth. One was that of the Amazons, fierce warriors of old, and although the fierce warrior was only one aspect of the complex woman he had left behind it was the one he associated most with her. What made her truly irresistible, however, was the fact that her warrior heart was tempered by her infinite capacity for compassion and love.

He sighed and opened his eyes to the stars once more. Now that the floodgates of his mind had opened he couldn't help but remember that day, the last day he knew he would ever gaze on her. They, his friends and his beloved, had been celebrating of sorts. Naraku was dead and her brother, Kohaku had returned. It was a bittersweet reunion, one that promised a long, uncertain future, but for the time being they would cling to whatever happiness there was to be had.

They had sat in a circle around a small fire near Goshinboku, eating ramen and laughing in a way that would sustain him till the next life. He had stood slightly away, far less serene than he appeared, flexing the fingers of his cursed hand and making a decision. He had known then that he would have to leave. For whatever cruel twist of fate that bore him into this world had left him with a reminder that evil like Naraku's lingered long after it was banished.

His wind tunnel had not closed.

He still did not know why.

Miroku refused to allow the curses bubbling in his throat to fall from his lips. He let his mind drift to the moment, that one life altering event that crushed any and all dreams he had of a future.

It was frozen in time, Tetsusaiga slashing, Naraku screaming, blood and miasma flowing into the night, and the empty shell that had once been Naraku falling forward. The body had mummified before their very eyes and the reason became abundantly clear when Kagura stepped out of the forest, holding a bloody knife and the limp form of Akago. In the aftermath of the half demon's death chaos had ensued and the monk had allowed himself to disappear into the whirlwind while keeping the horrifying knowledge of his still cursed hand to himself.

Miroku had managed to use his spiritual powers to hide the fact from those closest to him and had used all the skills of subterfuge he possessed to maintain a jovial mask in the face of his crushing disappointment. He had hid his malady until that day…the day he knew would be the last he spent among his friends, but mostly the day he knew that he would leave…her.

He had watched her discreetly, kneeling near her brother and Kagome, smiling with a great deal less of the sadness that had always haunted her eyes. She had been beautiful, and cautiously hopeful. It was a memory he craved because he knew that it would have to sustain him in whatever time he had left. He knew that his friends, his family, would have followed. They would have followed him to the very gates of hell had they known what he was going to do, but he refused to put them in any more danger. Naraku was dead and now they had the chance to be free, to be happy. Miroku would not have taken that from them for the world.

This was no longer their burden, or their fight. It was his to carry, his to endure, his alone.

He had left them that very night, sleeping underneath a blanket of stars similar to the ones he was now gazing at, and he had never looked back.

The few times that he allowed his mind to drift to her, allowed himself the bittersweet pain he found himself wondering. Was she happy? Had she done as she had always hoped and rebuilt her village? Did she and her brother live there? Had she married? Did she have children?

Part of him hoped that she had done any and all of those things, but the selfish part of him hoped that she…

He sighed in disgust. He had no right to hope for such a thing. Realistically he knew though, two years was a long time. Heart heavy he sighed and let his thoughts shift to less tortuous subjects.

He frowned deeply and dug into his robes to pull out the peculiar coin that had managed to find him at the last port. Hachi, probably with Mushin's help had sent it on a merchant vessel headed toward the region he was last heard to be traveling through. The coin was a summons, a summons that he could not ignore, and it greatly complicated things.

Many years before his grandfather, the monk Miyatsu, made a mistake and accidentally pulled a young human boy into his wind tunnel while vanquishing a demon. The Shougante he had preformed the service for was lead by a powerful Shogun by the name of Toyotomi and the boy was his nephew.

Instead of taking his grandfather's life the Shogun commanded that Miyatsu, from that day forth owned him a life debt. Three times he would call on Miyatsu's line and three times they would come when summoned to perform whatever service that was demanded of them.

His grandfather accepted, but came to regret his decision. Miyatsu was summoned by the Shogun but he never told a soul what had been demanded of him. Miroku's own father also went when Miroku was still a young boy.

The day his father returned he locked himself in the shrine and wept for three days. Mushin told him later that his father never spoke of what occurred; only that he hoped his shame would be forgiven.

The chill that had been creeping into his soul made him shiver.

Perhaps, thinking of Sango would be less painful, and surely sweeter.

He sighed again. He was returning to Japan, the place where he had left so much unresolved to go on a journey that had proved fruitless. It was getting harder and harder with each passing day to hold on to hope.

"Why Miroku, you seem unusually contemplative tonight, my dear boy."

Miroku lifted his head just enough to see who was addressing him. His deep amethyst gaze landed on his friend Father Manuel. The old priest was fat, usually drunk, and reminded him of Mushin in many ways, tonight though his eyes were clear and his nose less bulbous than normal. A delicatly beaded rosary was wrapped around his right hand and Miroku knew that his friend had just finished his prayers.

"It is too late, or too early depending on your perspective, to save my heathen soul, Manuel," Miroku said in perfect Portuguese.

The Priest chuckled low in his throat and lowered himself down painfully to sit next to his friend.

"For once I think God agrees with you, monk," Manuel replied in perfect Japanese.

Miroku smirked and turned his gaze to the sky once more. When he had first come aboard the Pardal Do Vôo six months ago he had not understood a word these gaijin uttered, but Father Manuel had spoken limited Chinese, a language that Miroku had also picked up early in his travels and together they had taught each other the languages of their birth.

"You have also managed in an extraordinarily devious manner to avoid my question. So tell me, what is going through that perplexing head of yours."

Miroku's smirk grew wider.

"Wouldn't you like to know, priest."

Father Manuel said nothing and slid down further to rest his aching back against the hard wood of the ships bow.

"I don't have to know because the Lord in his divine wisdom has given me, a humble priest, powers of discernment and what I discern is that only a woman can put such a look on a man's face."

Miroku's smirk faltered and but he held his jovial mask in place and laughed.

"And what would you know of women? Eh my friend? I thought that your God and your Church have forced you to remain celibate." The monk shuddered slightly at the very thought.

Manuel looked slightly affronted. "I admit that my chosen path in life does demand that I resist the temptation of the fairer sex but that does not mean, my boy, that I am ignorant of the affairs of the heart."

"Priest, you have known me long enough to know that I am seldom interested in affairs of the heart and much more attuned to, as you would put it, the sins of the flesh."

A calculating look flashed through Father Manuel's dark brown eyes and the fat priest briefly toyed with the beads of his rosary.

"Your expression was not that of one contemplating the most alluring of the seven deadliest of sins, although I am sure that for a woman to have stolen your heart, she has probably starred in some of your more…lecherous fantasies."

Miroku laughed. "My more lecherous fantasies would have you praying for my soul on an hourly basis my friend. You are, however; wrong to assume that what I feel for any woman goes beyond mere lust."

He shook his head and looked upon Miroku with eyes that saw far too much. His mask slipped once again and it was harder the second time to force it in place.

"I already pray for your soul on an hourly basis. Come, my friend, enough of this nonsense. We have been through far too much these past few months for you to start lying to me now. Tell me her name."

Miroku could see no way out of this verbal sparring that was such a mark of their friendship and simply sighed in defeat. His face lost all trace of the forced joviality it had previously contained and this time the smile that touch his lips was real and laced with weary pain.

"Since it seems you will pester me until I tell you I guess you leave me little choice." He paused and met Manuel's gaze directly. "Her name is…Sango"

Even the priest could not miss the weight of importance those two syllables held for the young monk. He grew serious as he regarded his friend carefully.

"A beautiful name."

Miroku made no reply for a moment. He was once again looking at the stars.

"Yes, it is a beautiful name for an incredibly beautiful woman." _One that I would give up again if it meant keeping her safe, _he thought to himself

The priest nodded sagely. "You have known incredibly beautiful women before, my friend. What I find curious is why it is this one who has taken your heart."

Miroku smirked and his eyes lit with an inner glow. How could he answer such a question? Sango, his beautiful, vulnerable, deadly, passionate Sango. She was such a contradiction, timid and bold, shy yet ardent, innocent and wise, intensely private but so very, very alive. How he had loved to make her angry and drive the soul crushing loneliness out of her cinnamon orbs at every opportunity.

_Well, that was only partially the reason_, his mind whispered.

A man would have to be either a eunuch or dead not to appreciate the very luscious curve of her leather clad bottom. How he truly loved her taijiya armor. Miroku's lustful thoughts must have been radiating from his face because Father Manuel was delicately clearing his throat and looking anywhere but at the young monk.

"Sango is…more than just a beautiful woman, and although it is her beauty that first drew my attention it was her strength that held me. She is everything I never wanted in a woman, strong, battle worn, infinitely honorable, hardly any trace of femininity left in her at all, but when we met she had the loneliest eyes I had ever seen. How can a man defend himself against a woman filled with so many contradictions? She was…is, utterly fascinating to me and I…well I will probably never see her again so this conversation is pointless."

He was half tempted to describe the pure vivaciousness of her when engaged in battle but he had come to realize that these Christians preferred their demons in a more existential form. His friend would not be able to comprehend the bitter reality.

The priest frowned.

"Is not the next port, some three days hence, the land of your birth? Why do you not find this woman and tell her how you truly feel"

Miroku's gaze slide away from his friend's and he unconsciously flexed the fingers of his right hand. His kazaana twitched in response.

"Sometimes, my friend, fate is not kind to those who are in its path. Perhaps…in the next life…"

Father Manuel heard the deep note of sadness and regret and placed a fatherly hand on his young friend's shoulder. He said nothing more and Miroku was grateful.

His last thoughts seemed to echo across the night sky.

_Be happy, my beautiful Sango, be happy…for me._


	2. The Importance of Being Sango

"_**Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"**_

_**Henry IV part II - William Shakespeare**_

The weather had grown colder. Sango sighed and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to generate some warmth, but all she seemed to feel this night was the cold seeping into her soul. She should go back inside, inside she could be sleeping in a warm bed, but she had found sleep elusive.

She had been staring at the ceiling for hours, her mind a whirlwind of…confusion…and heartache. She sighed again and looked to the evening sky. Even the stars seemed dull tonight and a light fog made the air hazy and dreary.

Sango felt the cold mist seep into her bones but she didn't want to go back. She felt so lost tonight, uncertain…and her traitorous mind did the one thing that she had forbad it…it drifted to him. She laughed derisively and a night bird cawed in answer.

It always seemed to come back to him.

"Damn you, Miroku," she whispered. The night did not whisper back.

Tonight was an anniversary of sorts; it was the anniversary of the day he had left them without word or explanation and in the process had shattered another piece of her fragile heart.

"Should've castrated him when I had the chance," she growled, but her anger could not hold.

In the beginning, during those first weeks of anguish and hell, her anger sustained her, but now…now all she seemed to feel anymore was bitter hurt. To this very day she couldn't understand. How could a man profess to love her, be willing to die for her, imply that he would marry her, and then just…leave without so much as a backwards glance.

Frustration clawed at her gut and she cursed herself a fool. Two years and thoughts of him still tied her stomach in knots. She hated him for that.

She clenched her fist and winced when it caused the muscles in her shoulder to tighten. She had been injured today, another gift from her brother Kohaku and yet another wound on her bruised heart. Thoughts of her brother sent her mind whirling into a downward spiral of recriminations and regrets. Sango wiped away the tears gathering in her eyes, refusing to allow them to fall.

Her thoughts drifted back and she thought of all that had changed, for good…and for bad.

It had started not long after Naraku's defeat and Miroku's departure. A whisper had reached Kaede's village about a powerful demon gathering followers. Kohaku had, at that time, failed to regain his lost memories and although she had been loathed to do so, she had left him under Kaede's care and accompanied InuYasha and Kagome to investigate.

What they had found had been something that none of them could have imagined. They had arrived to the lands in the west and on the outskirts of Sesshomaru's domain had found village after village annihilated. The fields and plains had run red with the blood of countless innocents and all the destruction had pointed to demonic forces.

The demons had banded together under a powerful demon Lord named Kijo. He was an ogre demon who had been dormant when Naraku's powerful aura choked the countryside but with his defeat came Kijo golden opportunity. He was the most powerful of his clan, and he had come into possession of a scared jewel shard, thus tripling his already formidable abilities. He literally declared war on humanity.

He would have succeeded in massacring all of Japan had not she, Kagome, InuYasha, and Shippo banded together with Sessshomaru and stopped the hoard.

The Demon War had raged for almost a year and with it InuYasha, Kagome, and Sango's legends had grown exponentially. The war had left many adrift and once the fighting had ended the drifters had migrated east looking for the taijiya that had fought so bravely.

They had found their way to Sango in small groups and she had reluctantly taken them in, trained the ones who wished to be trained, and inadvertently become the head mistress of her decimated village. The village had slowly been rebuilt and with its restoration had become, something new, something that Sango was not sure she had a place in any longer.

She growled in frustrated. She abhorred politics with every fiber of her being and in those early dreams of rebuilding the slayers' village she had not envisioned what it would mean to be the leader of her clan, adopted or otherwise. In the beginning when the people had come it had seemed only natural for her to take responsibility for the village, after all she was the last taijiya in existence and it was her people buried beneath the many mounds on what she had come to see as her mountain top.

Now though, there were those that had decided that perhaps a woman was not the best choice of leader for what was becoming a thriving village, especially a woman with a little brother who was prone to homicidal rages and who was torn between her duty to her people and her duty to her friends. The more the village grew the less tolerant of Kohaku's outbursts of insanity many had became, and the harder it had become to run the village, care for her brother, and still have time to help Kagome and InuYasha collect shards of the scared jewel.

She felt torn in so many different directions that she was no longer sure of who she was any longer.

Her shoulders slumped with the weight of her worries and started walking through the mist in the direction of the graves where her slain people lay. When she came to the first row of graves she was surprised to find someone already there. She smiled as she recognized the shape of the handsome man who had become like an older brother to her.

"Isamu, what are you doing out here at this time of night?" The man turned toward her and frowned deeply.

"I could ask you the same thing, Lady Sango." Sango smiled.

"Why do you still do that? You saved my life and you still will not call me, Sango."

Isamu looked away from her and flushed a deep red.

"It would not be proper, my Lady."

Sango sighed and shook her head in bemusement. The slayer felt a deep kinship with Isamu because his past was just as profoundly rooted in heartache and pain as her own.

He was a very skilled warrior, trained from a young age as a samurai and from what she had come to understand, he had betrayed his lord and killed him when his master had tried to rape a servant girl in his household. The servant girl had been named Arisu and they had fallen deeply in love. Soon after, the Lord's family had put a bounty on his and his love's heads and although it had stung Isamu's honor, he had fled to the lands of the west with his beloved and claimed her to wife.

He had banded with her and her friends during the Demon War when his young wife had been murdered by Kijo's lieutenant Ryo. Sango had saved his five year old daughter, Chie, from the fate suffered by her mother and later Isamu had saved Sango from a gruesome death at Kijo's hands. He had been her right hand ever since.

"You are impossible, Isamu."

"And you should be resting, my Lady. You have a long journey ahead of you."

Sango frowned and dug into her pocket to pull out the strange coin she had received two nights ago. The iridescent metal glinted in the moonlight and it seemed to pulse in the palm of her hand. The coin had come along with a note from the Shogunate of Toyotomi requesting her assistance with a monstrous demon that had been taking children from surrounding villages. The note had promised her a substantial fee in exchange for her services.

"I still don't think it is a good idea for me to respond to this strange summons. I have learned to trust my instincts through the years and something feels…wrong."

Isamu looked to the sky and frowned. The moon was three quarters full and tinted red with the coming of fall.

"Lady Kagome said the time of the Hunter's Moon approaches. I am not a superstitions man but I agree that something about this request does not seem, right. I also do no like that fact that Tatsuo seems eager for you to go, and has stirred up the villagers in favor of his desire."

Sango's frown deepened. Tatsuo, the current thorn lodged deeply in her side and the bane of her existence. He was the source of the discontent that swirled around her mountain top.

He had come to the slayer's village almost four months ago and slowly but surely he had been exerting his influence on her people. He had been a vassal for a now defunct Lord in the south and had come with his wife to join her sister and their family. He had not been pleased on his arrival to find that Sango was the village leader and his displeasure had slowly spread like a poison to some of the other men. The small band of dissidents had been looking for a way to prove to the rest of the village that she was unfit to lead them by focusing mostly on her practice of assisting InuYasha and Kagome when she could with shard hunting and protecting her brother Kohaku.

The grumbles and the whispers had worked with some people, but those who had first settled on her mountain had remained firmly loyal to the slayer.

Now though, Tatsuo had some real ammunition to use in his campaign against her. He had some how found out that a few weeks ago a messenger had come to her from Lord Takeda renewing his offer of marriage. She had, of course, declined and the storm of public opinion had been slowly shifting in Tatsuo favor. Many in the village could not understand why she would pass on a proposal that would not only give her legitimacy, but would also benefit those who had come to see themselves as her people.

Sango felt the anger stir in her belly and she embraced it. She did not enjoy being forced into a corner, but that is how she had started to feel in her role as headmistress. What really stroked her ire though was knowing that the role of leader and protector had not been one of her choosing, but one that had been thrust upon her due to circumstance.

She had learned to embraced and even cherish her role, but that did not give anyone the right to treat her as a commodity to be auctioned off to the most powerful Lord. When and if, she married, it would be by her rules and it would be her choice, and those that had chosen to align themselves under her and with her, would have to learn to deal with it.

She turned towards the ronin. "I hate this Isamu. I am not suited to politics."

"That is why you are such a good leader, Lady Sango. Tatsuo is a troublemaker and soon the others will realize that he does not have their best interests at heart. The ones who followed you from the battlefield know you, my Lady. They know that this village would not exist if not for you and they will not allow Tatsuo to bully you into a marriage that you do not want. This village has risen from the ashes of destruction and we do not need a Lord to protect us because, as you have taught us, we have each other."

Sango looked to the moon. "Yes, but will they remember with Tatsuo buzzing constantly in their ears about how unsuitable and unwomanly I am? I admit Isamu, that I am not trained to be a great lady."

"No you are a taijiya, a proud and noble warrior and there will always be those in this village that would follow you unto death. You have my sword, Lady, as long as I walk this earth and you will always have my friendship for saving my daughter."

Sango smiled at him. "How is Chie?"

A small smile curved her friend's lips and his eyes shown.

"She is grounded for throwing fruit at Tatsuo's pompous little brat, Shuji. Frankly I wanted to reward her with some of Kagome's ninja snacks but figured that would send the wrong message."

Sango laughed and shook her head, highly amused, but her next thought sobered her.

"Isamu be careful while I'm gone, all right? My gut is telling me that something is coming and that it is not a coincidence that I am being called away. I'm going to leave Kirara here and if you get into trouble send her to Kaede's village. Kagome told me that she is going to be back in her time taking exams and that InuYasha was going with her, but Lady Kaede will be there when I take Kohaku. She will let our friends know and they will come to aid you if needed."

The former samurai frowned but nodded his agreement.

"You can rely on me, my Lady. I will protect the village."

He did not have to say he would protect the village with his life, because she already knew. Sango and Isamu stood side by side at the foot of those who had died before her and the last of the taijiyas couldn't help but feel that something out there wanted her to join them.


	3. You Can't Go Home Again

**"Tempt not a desperate man."**

**Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare**

Miroku stepped off the gangplank of the Portuguese ship that had been his home for a little over half a year and stepped onto Japanese soil. The earth did not shift beneath his feet but a tiny flutter of completion jarred his weary soul.

He was home.

Father Manuel stepped off the boat next to him and seemed to be enthralled by the scenery before him. The coastal village gave way in the distance to rolling hills, green fields, and on the horizon mountains could be seen touching the sky. It was nothing like the bustling city of Lisbon, nor could it compare to the splendor of Rome, but the priest found he enjoyed the sweet, fresh air rolling off the sea and the untainted atmosphere of the rural countryside.

"You're country is beautiful, my friend. Whatever possessed you to leave?" Miroku continued to stare out at the landscape before answering.

"I was looking for something that I could not find here."

Manuel paused and regarded him critically.

"And did you find what you sought in the world beyond?"

Miroku grimaced and his mouth twisted into a sickly smirk but he did not answer. Instead he turned to his friend and lifted his cursed hand in the gesture of blessing.

"My friend, I wish you fulfillment in your endeavors and happiness in this and the next life. I must part with you now and continue on my journey alone."

Manuel nodded in understanding and responded with a blessing of his own. He lifted his hand and made the sign of the holy cross over Miroku.

"May the Lord God bless you and keep you and may his angels guide thee on thy path, even if you are a heathen lecher; content to deny his omnipotent power."

The monk smirked at his friend and bowed slightly; the priest grinned and bowed back.

"Good-bye you old drunk, try not to get scurvy on your journey west."

Manuel shot him one last grin and watched his young friend start walking down the path that would lead him out of the village.

"Good-bye my boy, and God speed," was the last thing the monk heard before his friend turned headed for the nearest tea house.

It was the close of what had seemed an endless chapter in his life, a chapter filled with uncertainty and endless frustration. He would, however, miss the strange Christian priest who had become his only friend on his unproductive journey. Miroku sighed and wandered further down the lane. He drew the chilly air into his lungs and with it came the distant smell of wood smoke and the aromas that he had come to associate with fall. He immediately wondered what Sango was doing at this very instant and sighed as his blood started to hum.

_It doesn't matter what she is doing. I am not going to see her. I came back to honor my grandfather's debt, nothing more. I will leave again as soon as the task is completed_.

He couldn't ignore the fact though that he was half a day's walk from Kaede's village, nor could he ignore the longing that had settled in his chest to see someone, anyone, familiar to him. The sad truth was that wandering through unknown places alone, surrounded by strange languages, strange customs, had left Miroku with an aching loneliness in his soul.

"What could it hurt to see," he murmured. He suddenly wanted to, more than anything else in this life; he wanted to see the village again.

The temptation floated there on the edges of his tired mind and he found his feet subtly shifting direction and heading towards one of the only places that had felt like home. After all, the slayer village was a good distance from Kaede's and the chances of her being there were very, very slim. He blatantly ignored the part of his mind that was screaming that this was not a good idea.

Miroku foolishly journeyed towards his past for the better part of the morning and late afternoon. The sun was setting by the time he reached the edge of InuYasha's forest and heard the roars that could only have come from demons deep in the throes of bloodlust. Miroku's eyes hardened into slits and he gripped his staff tightly in his hands as he started to run towards the sound.

"Welcome home," he muttered and broke into the forest.

Miroku ran hard, using his spiritual powers to sprint at an inhuman speed. He broke into the clearing and had just enough time to yelp and roll as a familiar boomerang flew over his head and whipped around to be caught one handed by the taijiya who was the only one capable of wielding it. The demons that attacked the slayer and the boy with her, disintegrated in a flash of oozing, broken body parts, leaving slimy, dead flesh in their wake. Miroku froze and blinked trying to clear the image before him; sure that it could not be real, but when his eyes opened his mirage remained.

"Sango," he breathed his heart bleeding and then he yelled in warning, "Sango!"

The taijiya turned towards him and her eyes went wide in utter disbelief as the man she had not seen in two winters, raced across the field and pushed her sprawling on the ground.

Miroku quickly raised his staff, blocking the serrated edge of a huge claw that had been about to cleave her in two. With a grunt of pain Miroku felt the blow vibrated through his aching body, as his sandal clad feet dug for purchase on the slick ground. He slid back five feet and would have crashed into a nearby tree, but mercifully his feet clung and held.

He ignored the pain, twisted his staff, and in one seemingly fluid motion pushed the demon's claw back and leapt to the side.

Sango recovered, told Kohaku to get behind her, and hefted her weapon.

"Hiraikotsu," echoed through the air to his left and Miroku had just enough time to duck as Sango's boomerang flew by his head. The formidable weapon slashed through the claw, severing it from the demon's arm. It roared in pain and rage, clutching the useless appendage to its chest.

Miroku bared his teeth and readied his staff. The sheer size of the monster they were fighting was impressive. It was massive and ugly, with sickly yellow skin that hung like rotting meat. Black poisonous ichor dripped from bone crushing fangs, and the smell of blood, death, and fetid disease clung to the demon, poisoning the air. The demon roared and charged. Miroku wasted no time, but quickly pulled three sutras out of his sleeve and threw them at the charging beast. It roared in pain as his spiritual energy engulfed it, but it did not dissipate.

"By all the hells," he cursed as the demon barreled into him, slashed him with a massive claw, and sent him flying.

The next few moments became almost slow motion for Miroku.

He watched the demon turn burning red eyes on the taijiya that had taken its arm. She braced herself for the attack and gracefully executed a perfect kick to the monster's face when it charged. The demon rolled and stumbled as Sango landed near him. Her cinnamon eyes met his violet ones and locked onto him with the precision of a bird of prey. In the time it took for a single heart beat he watched a million emotions flash through those delicious orbs only to go blank as her well practiced mask descended.

Miroku would have said something, anything but the demon chose that moment to attack, again. Sango turned away from him and spun Hiraikotsu in front of her like a shield just as one deadly claw descended. She caught the blow with a grunt and held.

He could see sweat bead on her brow and due to the skin tight battle armor, he could see the muscles of her strong arms quiver.

He quickly regained his feet and grimaced as pain flared in his right side and dizziness assaulted him. Confused and unsteady, he reached around with his uncursed hand and his fingers came away sticky with blood. Frowning Miroku ignored it and reached into his sleeve for two new sutras. He threw the deceptively flimsy paper at the demon before him and muttered an incantation.

This time the demon screamed and its aura dissipated, leaving both Miroku and Sango on their knees, breathing heavy.

Miroku felt his vision blur as the taijiya turned towards him.

"It's nice to see you again, Sango," he muttered just before blackness descended.

His last thought was that the universe must truly, truly hate him.

* * *

Full dark had descended by the time Miroku was able to fight his way back to consciousness. His eyes fluttered opened and he unconsciously shifted his batter body. He groaned as his broken ribs protested the movement.

"You're awake," a feminine voice said. It was a bland statement of fact, containing absolutely no warmth or emotion. Miroku froze, closed his eyes, collected his courage, and turned towards the voice.

He felt a cornucopia of emotions assault his senses as he gazed fully on the woman that he had left behind. Love, lust, desperation, pain, uncertainly, and wariness, to name just a few, all of which he hide behind hooded bedroom eyes and a lazy smirk. She was bathed in the flickering light of the slowly dying fire in the fire pit in the middle of what he recognized as Kaede's hut. The wise, elderly miko was nowhere to be seen but Miroku could see a small, blanketed body just beyond the slayer.

The orange/red glow danced over her neutral face, casting her in shadow and drawing out the auburn highlights in her dark hair. She was even more beautiful than he remembered and she was looking at him as if he were a stranger.

Fate truly was a cruel mistress.

"Kohaku seems to be sleeping well," he said, just to say something really. Sango merely gazed at him, her whiskey eyes unfathomable.

"The nightmares have gotten a lot better and he feels safe in Kaede's hut. He should sleep through the night." No inflection. Miroku felt his smile slip.

"How are InuYasha and Kagome?" He asked.

"The same." Again, no emotion.

"How about Kaede?"

"She is well"

Miroku's scowl deepened.

"I was surprised to see you here. I thought you would have rebuilt your village by now."

"I have, I'm visiting."

Miroku's scowl turned into a displeased frown. She was deliberately acting as if they were two casual acquaintances making polite conversation instead of two almost lovers with too many regrets and so much baggage they could stock one of Kagome's airports. He had imagined, many times, what he might say to her if he were to somehow cross her path again. In all his imaginings, never had Sango looked on him as she was doing now. She was cold…and indifferent.

Miroku felt the somewhat reckless abandonment that had characterized so much of his youth bubble in his gut.

He was about to do something extremely foolish but then, he had never had any self control when it came to Sango. He had truly never planned to see her again, and true he knew that as soon as he had done what he needed to, he would leave, but to have her pretend that there was nothing between them angered him. He had spent two tortuous years longing for her, missing her, and yes dammit, still loving her. There was only so much loneliness a man could take and her utter lack of reaction to him caused that well of inner darkness he carried to simmer.

Miroku masked his ire behind his playful mask and did what he always did when Sango masked her emotions. He made her angry.

"Sango my love…"

Her eyes flashed and she growled in warning.

"Don't monk."

An unholy gleam entered his violet orbs and her own flared in response.

"Well, well, well, I must have struck a cord my love. You only call me monk when you are truly annoyed with me. Surely something as simple as an endearment between old friends would not cause such a reaction, taijiya."

Her title graced his forked tongue and rolled off like an intimate caress. Sango's fists tightened at her side and her nostrils flared.

"I am not your love and we are not old friends, Houshi. Friends don't..." she drew in a steadying breath. "What the hell are you doing here, monk?"

Miroku simply grinned.

"Perhaps I missed you? Surely you missed me?"

Sango's fists tightened even more and drove her nails into her palms. Blood trickled from between her tense fingers.

"No, I did not miss you. You could have descended into the lowest hell for all the thought I've given you."

Miroku's eyes went dark and his jovial mask slipped. Briefly he looked down and noticed that his chest was bare and expertly wrapped in bandages from Kagome's time. He recognized the style of dressing as being unique to the slayer before him. She had dressed his wounds which belied the fact that she wanted to see him rot in hell.

He narrowed his eyes and said much too cheerfully.

"You're lying, Sango. I could always tell when you were lying. You were never any good at it. Come taijiya; why not tell me the truth?"

The anger that she had been struggling to control burst forth and she practically choked on her rage. Looking at him, smirking at her in only that perverted way he could managed, Sango felt the years well up inside of her. All the doubts, all the insecurities, all the heartache she had suffered at his hands fueled her boiling rage. She wanted to hurt him, she wanted to scream, she wanted …Kami she wanted lay in his arms and cry into his shoulder while he held her. Struggling with her conflicting emotions she stood up, stalked over to him, and glared down at him.

"The truth? You wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and bit you in the ass! I can't believe this. You sure as hell weren't forthcoming with the truth when you slunk away like a snake without so much as a backwards glance, but I guess your village girls just couldn't wait! Tell me monk, did you even wait a whole day before bedding the first woman that would spread her legs for you!"

She hadn't been yelling, only because she was still aware that her little brother was sleeping not two feet from her, but there was enough venom in her words to flay Miroku alive. She was so enraged that it hadn't even registered that the monk had gone dangerously still.

Lightening quick Miroku stuck, ignoring his protesting ribs, and pulled the taijiya down and under him. Her eyes widened and she struggled but his two years of traveling had taught him a trick or two and he easily pinned her hands above her head. He glared down into her flashing eyes and tried to ignore the fact that she was wiggling beneath him and that he was half naked. He couldn't believe that she had, had so little faith in him, in what they had shared, that she thought he had left her to scratch an itch. True he had enjoyed flirting, and true he was not the most celibate of men, but it had always been Sango who held his heart. He had thought she would have known he would never have left her had if it not been important.

"Taijiya stop squirming. I am no longer the man who let you slap him silly for nothing more than an innocent grope and I most certainly was never a man who would let such an insult pass without retaliation."

Miroku's voice was low and dangerous, a tone that she had only heard once or twice in their travels together. Usually it was directed at something he intended to kill swiftly and without mercy. Sango could not suppress the shiver that ran down her spine.

She faced him squarely. "Get off me, monk"

Miroku scowled.

"Sango, don't test me. You and I are going to get one thing straight. Yes, I left but it was not to, as you so succulently put it, to look for ladies to spread their legs for me. If I had simply wanted a woman to spread their legs for me I could have had you panting for me without so much as a by your leave."

Sango stiffened in outrage and started struggling again. He hissed when she bumped his broken ribs and slammed her hands down with just enough force to get her attention.

"Now who's lying, monk" she hissed. He smiled, mischievously.

"I'm not lying and a simple test will prove that."

"Wh-" she started to say but was abruptly cut off when his lips descended and captured her in a deep kiss.

Startled and still angry she stiffened her whole body and refused to respond, but her traitorous heart had other ideas.

Miroku moved his lips over hers demanding, suckling lightly on her full bottom lip and coaxing her to open for him. She gasped at the sensation and her body betrayed her, her nipples grew hard, heat pooled in her gut, and she melted.

Miroku took full advantage of her gasp and thrust his tongue deep into her mouth, dueling with her tongue and tasting her. He groaned and shifted his battered body to accommodated the very hard evidence of his response to her. He lightly sucked her tongue into his waiting mouth and she moaned.

He nibbled and sucked and sweet Kami did she taste good. He shifted her hands so that only one of his held them down and ran the other lightly down the underside of her breasts continuing to brush her slim hips before lightly caressing what he could of her bottom.

Sango shuddered beneath him, no longer indifferent and Miroku knew that he was going to hell for what he had just done.

He broke away and nipped at her bottom lip, which was swollen from his assault.

"Sango," he moaned, half curse, half prayer. She turned her head and looked away from him. She was blinking back tears.

"Why did you come back, Miroku? I would have been all right if you would have just…stayed away."

The anger was gone and in its place all Miroku heard was heartbreak. His own anger subsided and the darkness retreated back to the place deep inside. He sighed, disgusted with himself. This was why he had not wanted to see her. He had not wanted to cause her even more pain and here he was, provoking her, wanting her…loving her.

The universe not only hated him it was out to destroy him.

He released her abruptly and she scrambled to her feet and backed away from him.

He sighed. "I'm sorry, taijiya. I truly did not mean to hurt you. I know that you do not believe me, but I truly did not leave you to pursue what you would call, my lecherous appetites."

"Then why? Why did you leave?" she questioned softly. The one question that he would not…could not, answer. Miroku looked away from her. He could not stand the pain he saw reflected in the firelight.

"It…It no longer matters; besides it does not change anything. I will have to leave as soon as my task in complete. I only hope that you can forgive me one day."

Sango touched her fingers to her swollen lips and shook her head.

"I will never forgive you, Miroku," she replied, collected herself, and calmly left. He watched her go and cursed himself a fool.

He should never have returned.


	4. Recriminations and Regrets

"_**Slept in my make-up, didn't get my teeth brushed. Crash on the couch and now my mouth tastes like yesterday's news. Well hello, Jim Beam, all the places you've seen. If only you could talk you'd tell me why he walked out on me and you. Oh the things lover's do when its over. Oh the things lovers do when its done. Find a cool bottle or a warm shoulder, wake up older, and try to move on."**_

_**Julie Roberts - Wake Up Older**_

Punch…Kick…Thrust…Release

Hiraikotsu flew through the field in a graceful arc and returned at just the right angle for Sango to expertly grasp the strap of the deadly weapon so it came to rest along her shoulder. Slick with exertion, she rolled the boomerang into a defensive position and proceeded to work out her inner turmoil they way she always preferred...with controlled violence.

"Damn him, damn him to all the hells," she muttered and swung her weapon in a killing arc.

Inside, underneath the anger and the violence Sango could feel herself dying. Tears blurred her vision, but she blinked them back and swung Hiraikotsu with greater venom.

It wasn't healthy to feel this…broken. She knew it, but she didn't know what she could do about it. Her unsteady soul did nothing to interrupt the flow of her powerful movements and she thrust again. She growled and swung her body into a high kick, landed, pivoted, and brought the boomerang around in a defensive position.

She had never thought she could hate another human being the way she hated him right now. It wasn't fair. When he had left and shattered her heart she had slowly picked up the pieces and had attempted to do the impossible. She had been gluing it back together.

She had fought in the war with her other two friends and stumbled back to rebuild her village, and despite the turmoil going on right now she had managed to find a way to be just a little bit…if not happy then less…destroyed. She had been, dare she say it, content…still hurt…but content. That contentment, however, had been washed away in the miniscule instant it had taken for her to blink her eyes and see him barreling toward her, calling her name.

All her hard work, all her composure, all the painful, aching progress she had made towards being a functioning human being, gone in the single blink of an eye.

The pain flared hot and bright and it almost brought her to her knees. How could a human being hurt like this and still be alive? It just didn't seem possible. Gritting her teeth, Sango rolled her body into a series of punches, accentuating each one with a blow from Hiraikotsu.

_Why hadn't he stayed away! _Her mind screamed and she punished her body. Gods, how she wanted so badly to just be numb, anything to cure the ache that was crushing her chest.

What she hated the most though was not the pain that had flared so brightly with his return, but the hope that he brought with him. She cursed and rolled again into a series of kicks. Fighting with him by her side, even though her mind had been screaming, had returned to her like an old, familiar kimono that had never forgotten the shape of the curves it had been made to fit.

And when he had fallen it had been second nature for her heart to fill with worry and for her lips to fervently pray that he would be all right. In that instant, it was like he had never been gone, and nothing had change. The problem was; everything had changed.

She hated him…and oh Kami save her, she still loved him. Sango swore to herself that was something he would never be allowed to find out.

Thrust...Punch…Kick…Thrust.

She had tried to remain indifferent to him, had convinced herself during the hours he remained unconscious that she no longer felt anything for him at all.

Then the bastard had woken up.

Gods, but he hadn't changed a bit. He hadn't liked her indifference so he provoked her to anger and Kami above she had let him. She had no control over her emotions when it came to that man. She never had.

Kick…Kick…Twist…Release.

And because she was angry she'd baited him. She had known the moment she said it that her accusation about his womanizing had been hitting below the belt and the part of her that still loved him and knew him to be, very deep down, an honorable man, had known it wasn't true. The darker part of her though, the one that harbored all those insidious insecurities that she hid from the world had wanted to hurt him.

She swung around and caught her boomerang and swung into another kick.

She had hurt him, she had seen it there in his eyes, buried under the burning anger and then Kami he had punished her, punished her with a searing kiss. And two years later her body still reacted to his touch the way it had to no other man she had ever known. Her nipples had grown painfully hard, heat had pooled in her gut, and she had surrendered to his skilled mouth with hardly a whimper.

Kick…Release.

_Kami, why hadn't he stayed away!_

* * *

_Why hadn't he stayed away?_

Miroku sighed and leaned on the fence that separated Kaede's village from the fields and forest beyond. Sango was in the field dressed, once again, in that tantalizing uniform that marked her as taijiya, and she was slowly going through a routine of Jujutsu movements to strengthen her body.

The mid-morning sun glinted off the auburn streaks in her ebony hair and a fine sheen of perspiration shown on her forehead. She was entirely focused on the fluid movements and had yet to acknowledge that he was watching her. Miroku was not fool enough to believe she was unaware of his presence, but since she was ignoring him it gave him the opportunity to admire her graceful form.

_Kami, she is beautiful, _he thought. He had traveled the continent and beyond and never found her equal. Sango swept her legs into a controlled arch and landed without a faltered step.

He should have stayed away. It had been utter foolishness to come to Kaede's village, and it had been beyond stupid to have allowed his desires and emotions to control him.

The kiss had simply been suicidal.

The normally serene monk felt his turbulent emotions bubble and the inner darkness that he suppressed daily, screech at him. He planned to leave today and this time he would not look back. He had never imagined that his leaving had caused her this much pain. In the weeks and months he had been gone he had been sure that she would get over him…that she would have moved on.

He was a fool.

She could barely even look at him when he had emerged for breakfast this morning and Miroku had known then and there that he had made a grave mistake. Torn, and knowing that nothing he did could fix what he had done, he simply watched her. Knowing what he knew now, and having to make the same decision to leave her again he knew that he would do so in a heartbeat. After all a broken heart could heal...given enough time.

He flexed his cursed hand.

Death was much more permanent.

"Miroku it is good to see ye boy."

Miroku jumped and turned away from the picture that was Sango towards the elderly miko addressing him.

"Lady Kaede, It does my heart glad to see you again."

Kaede smiled and joined him at the fence.

"As is mine upon seeing you."

"Where is Shippou? I know Kagome and InuYasha have gone to her time but usually the kit is underfoot whilst they are gone."

She smiled slightly. "He's not much of a kit any longer, my boy. He be twelve now and be spending a great deal of time in the western lands with young Rin."

Miroku smirked. "Ahh love, how it doth make fools of us all."

The priestess said nothing but responded with a slight smile. Silence descended for a moment and was broken when she tilted her head to the side and regarded the young man before her. She had a calculating expression on her weathered face.

"I am surprised to see ye. I had not expected ye quest to end quite so soon. Tell me, have ye finally found a way to close the wind tunnel for good?"

The young monk started at the knowing look in the miko's good eye and he groaned. He should have known, truly. Kaede had been around far too long and she had always seemed to just know things. Miroku flexed his right hand unconsciously, making sure to hold the glamour that made it appear to be unbound by his prayer beads.

"How did you know?"

She shook her head. "Ye forget that I am a priestess and unlike young Kagome I am better at sensing flares of power in others, although she has gotten better of late."

He turned away to watch Sango, again. "Then it is a good thing she is not here."

Kaede shook her head. "Come monk, have ye not learned? This is not something ye should do alone. Besides the taijiya deserves to know the truth about ye."

Miroku frowned. "She would have come with me and I will not have that on my conscious Lady. If I had fulfilled my promise to become her husband I would have put her in danger. I had vowed long ago that the day my hand takes me it will take only me. I will not take a chance with her life, not when I have the power to protect her. Better she hate me and live, then love me…and die"

She shook her head. "Sometimes monk, ye do not get to choose. Destiny has brought ye back together. She carries a coin, the twin of the one you brought with ye. She is summoned and ye will need her to face what is to come."

He scowled, puzzled. "How do you know about my coin?"

"Lord Komoku came to me in a vision less than a fortnight ago. He wished me to tell ye that ye and thy taijiya are to journey to the lands of the south. There ye will face a great evil."

He went very still and in a hoarse voice inquired thickly. "What else have you seen?"

The old miko shuddered.

"Darkness. Unending darkness and an evil that cannot be allowed to continue. There have been tales for years, horrible tales. Children have a very short life span in Toyotomi's domain and Sango, the darkness wants Sango, it is…lustful. I can tell thee nothing more."

Miroku cursed low but she did not reprimand him. He had the sudden, irresistible feeling of being trapped. How could the gods do this to him? He had only been in her presence one day and the pain he had caused her threatened to eat him alive. He needed to leave her and yet now he was being told that he needed to stay. He growled low in his throat.

"You're telling me that I can not walk away from her aren't you, Lady."

It was not a question.

Kaede simply gave him a knowing look and left him to his troubled thoughts.

Miroku turned his attention back to Sango and noticed the slayer was now looking his way. In the stroke of an instant things had changed and he knew that he would have to negotiate a truce. With a sigh he ducked under the fence and approached her.

"Sango, we need to talk."

The taijiya contemplated him for a moment, thought briefly of simply ignoring him, but knew he wouldn't let her get away with that.

"Miroku, I really don't think we have anything to talk about. Besides, Kaede said you were leaving before lunch."

He ignored the implied, and _I hope I never see you again_, and roughly grabbed her arm to pull her towards a nearby grove of trees. Sango stiffened, grasped his wrist, and twisted her body. He was thrown off balance and landed hard behind her.

"You do not have permission to touch me," she hissed.

Miroku felt the darkness in him bubble, but this time he forced it back down his gut. Much too calmly he regained his feet and brushed the dirt off his robes. The silence stretched before them, uncomfortable and awkward.

Miroku shifted and Sango shifted.

Exasperated, he said. "This is foolish. I admit that you are within your rights to want to see the back of me as swiftly as possible but surely you must know that I…" he trailed off at her less than receptive expression.

Agitated now he fidgeted with his staff. "Look taijiya, we were friends at one time and despite everything I still consider you such. I have just spoken with Lady Kaede and she tells me that you and I have both received coins such as these. She told me that she has received a vision."

He delved into his robes and came out with an iridescent coin that was the twin of the one she had received not four days ago. She frowned, crossed her arms, and said nothing. Inside, however, her heart had started a staccato beat that promised foreboding. Kaede's visions were nothing to trifle with.

For a moment he didn't think she was going to answer.

"One of Lord Toyotomi's vassals delivered it to the village…" She seemed to want to say more but she was eyeing him in a way that made his heart clench. She wasn't sure if she could trust him, he could see it in her eyes. Truth be told, he wasn't truly sure she should trust him either.

"You're uneasy about the summons," he guessed and she looked away. He could tell by the look on her face that she hated how easily he read her. Hated that even after all this time, he knew her.

"Yes."

Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair and fiddled with his staff again.

"Sango I…" he trailed off and tried again. "Sango…I do not expect you to trust me, and as much as I would like to I can offer no explanation for what is past. I had not expected to see you again and had not the demon been about to…Well, I would not have made my presence…known."

Sango's face seemed to tighten in anger as he spoke.

"So this is how it is to remain between us? You toss me aside and give no explanation? You come back only to leave? Why Miroku? Why would you do this to me? I thought…"

She trialed off, refusing to complete her thought. Miroku cursed his traitorous heart as he prompted her.

"You thought?"

Sango sighed and cursed herself a coward.

"Nothing houshi, it is no longer important."

The monk made no reply. He cleared his throat.

"Sango, what I am about to ask I have no right to, but despite…everything…"

He paused. "I know that Kaede would not have received a vision if the danger were not real. Both of us are summoned and I fear that neither of us is going to be strong enough to face this task alone. I am going to need your help. I am asking you to search your honor and in memory of our friendship to travel with me until this task is complete."

Sango's nails drove deeper into her palms and she clenched her teeth.

"You always did ask for the impossible, Miroku."

She frowned, torn between her honor and her anger. Finally she looked at him and made a request that would torment him for all the time he remained on this earth and beyond.

"When we are finished with this task do you promise to leave?"

He swallowed past the lump in his suddenly dry throat.

"If that is what you wish, Lady Sango."

"It's what I need houshi, and in honor of our past friendship I will go with you, but when it is done we will truly part ways…forever."

Miroku nodded and inside his soul died. He flexed his kazaana unconsciously. He knew then and there that this evil he was about to face would truly be his last. One way or another, his journey was done.

Leaving forever was not going to be a problem.


	5. The Road to Healing

"_**Storms are waging on a rolling sea, down a highway of regret. The winds of change are blowing wild and free, but you ain't seen nothing like me yet. There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do, to the ends of this earth with you. Make you happy, make your dreams come true, to make you feel my love."**_

_**To Make You Feel My Love - Garth Brooks.**_

Sango cursed as the rabbit twitched its fluffy ears, gazed at her with mischievous wide-eyed bunny eyes, flicked its little nose, and took off into the woods. She cursed again, pushed herself into a sitting position and gingerly touched her ankle. She winced.

_Sprained, _she thought. _Not bad, but enough to be annoying. _Frustrated she scowled and watched the fluffy tail as it disappeared into the undergrowth. She could swear she heard the rodent laughing.

_This was all Miroku's fault, _she groused a bit unfairly. Thoughts of the monk had her grinding her teeth and she grunted as she pushed herself into a standing position. She winced again and gingerly put weight on her foot, testing its strength.

Her anger was still too near the surface and too raw for her to hold a civil conversation with him, so she'd ignored him and spoken to him only when absolutely necessary.

They'd barely said five words to each other the entire day.

It made for very tense traveling conditions.

To her surprise though he seemed to be honoring his promise to stay away from her; she also knew it wouldn't last.

Even though they were barely speaking she had felt his eyes on her all day. Frustrated, confused, and just plain weary she had gone into the woods to hunt simply to get away from his damnable all knowing gaze.

Now this happened.

She put a bit more weight on her injured ankle and was pleased to find it didn't crumple under the pressure. Limping slightly she made her way back to camp.

He looked up when she returned but she glared at him and ignored him. He sighed.

"No luck?" he asked. She shrugged and busied herself with checking for invisible cracks in Hiraikotsu.

He frowned at her, sighed again, got up, and disappeared in the direction of the stream.

Sango's shoulders slumped.

She knew that she was being a bit childish but she couldn't seem to stop herself. Frowning, she laid her boomerang down next to her and leaned back, tilting her head towards the dying day.

This had been a mistake. The more she tried to convince herself that she was indifferent to his presence the more keenly she felt it. She had almost forgotten in the two years he'd been gone how…comforting…it felt to be around him.

She scowled and blinked back the moisture gathering in her eyes. She needed to be strong, she needed to hold on to the pain and anger and not remember the other times, the good times.

Her pep talk did little to stop the flutter in her heart when he returned, carrying fish and a wet cloth in his hand. He laid the fish on a nearby rock and made his way towards her. She stiffened when he knelt down in front of her, close enough to touch.

"What are you doing houshi?" She asked, distrustful.

He said nothing as he gently but firmly took her ankle in his hands, pealed back her armor, and exposed the slightly swollen skin. She hissed and tried to pull away but he simple held on and draped the cool cloth over the inflamed area. He had his bedroll tucked under his arm and he shoved it under her foot, elevating the injury.

He said nothing, got up, and proceeded to cook diner. Sango closed her eyes and fought tears as she felt the heart thaw another degree.

* * *

The next day they had been traveling slowly because Sango's ankle still twinged a bit. They still weren't speaking to each other but Miroku made sure to stay close to her in case she needed his assistance.

She stumbled over a rock and he immediately reached out a hand to steady her, only to have her pull away from him violently and glare. He sighed and watched her with hooded eyes as she put some distance between them.

"Stubborn," he muttered, but not low enough for her not to have heard him. She tossed him another glare and picked up the pace.

He simple watched her and wondered for the hundredth time how it all went so bloody wrong.

He was once again contemplating the vast unfairness of fate and found himself muttering prayers at the oddest times for this torture to end.

It was quite literally killing him to be this close to her again, traveling and sharing days together. He breathed in deeply when the wind picked up and her unique scent teased his nostrils, cherry blossoms with a hint of sage.

She was dressed in her yukata, with her taijiya armor on underneath, Hiraikotsu slung over her shoulder along with her bedroll and a small bag full of varies travel supplies.

The bag hung across her chest and rested near her hip. It looked like something from Kagome's time with its strange metal clasps and strange design.

Curious and wanting a reason to talk to her he hurried along until he was even with her. She glanced at him stiffly and turned back to the road. He ignored his spiking annoyance and traced the letters on the canvas flap.

"What is this, 'fossil'? Is it the name of a master artisan?"

Sango glanced down and small smile curved her lips.

"I asked the same thing. Kagome said sort of, she calls them designers. She said this design was called a messenger bag. She got it for me for my birthday and said it would be useful."

"I have never felt material such as this."

"Kagome called it canvas. She thought it would go well with my yukata."

He frowned and neither seemed to realize that they had just spent five minutes having a civil conversation. It was almost as if they were normal again, comfortable, but then Miroku's hand brushed her bare wrist and a fission of awareness electrified the pulse point. She pulled away and he sighed again.

"Sango," he breathed. She shook her head and pulled ahead of him again. He felt his heart drop and let her go.

* * *

That evening found them still not speaking more than was necessary and both decided by mutual unspoken agreement, to retire early. Sango had been fighting emotional exhaustion since he'd re-entered her life and had dropped off to sleep almost immediately.

It was no wonder the nightmares came.

"No, Kohaku!"

She couldn't stifle the scream that ripped from her throat as she bolted awake. She was shaking and her dark bangs were plastered to her forehead. She ran an unsteady hand over her face and reminded herself that it was just a dream.

Not only that, it was a dream she had before, many times.

"Kohaku," she whispered and hugged herself. She hated these damn dreams, especially this one. It was the most deceptive.

She shivered. It always started out the way dreams were meant to, with brilliant blue skies and beautiful spring foliage.

She was standing in the middle of a field of wild flowers, riotous color splashed everywhere, and her brother stood facing her. He always looks so out of place in this dream because his eyes held such soul crushing despair.

He would face her with those drowning eyes and in the midst of all that beauty; he would lift his scythe, reach around, and use the point to pry the jewel shard from his back.

She would try to run to him but the flowers would bind her and the more she struggled the tighter they held. She could only watch and scream as her brother fell lifeless to the ground.

She usually woke up calling his name, just as she had done tonight. Sweating and angry, she viciously pushed down the lingering fear and turned to lie back down.

She started in surprise.

Miroku was staring at her.

Mortified, she looked away and repositioned herself under her bedroll. She chanced a glace at him.

He was still staring at her.

Praying he would simply let it be and knowing that he would not she let the silence stretch. It didn't surprise her at all when he spoke.

"Do you have nightmares often?"

She closed her eyes, opened them, and sighed.

"They come and they go," she whispered. She saw him shift as if to come to her, but something in her gaze stopped him and she sighed in relief. She wouldn't be able to hold it together if Miroku took her in his arms. She just wasn't strong enough.

The fact that he knew it and respected her enough to allow her the illusion of her strength caused another fissure in the ice encasing her heart. Silence descended once more until Miroku simply started telling her a story.

"I remember a night like this a few months ago. I was on a ship and we were anchored just of the coast of Greece in the Aegean Sea. My friend, a Christian priest by the name of Manuel dug out a bottle of rum he had been saving for a rainy day and we proceeded to drink.

I did not imbibe too much due to the fact that rum is much too sweet for me, but the good father finished most of the bottle and decided it would be a good idea to dance on the crow's nest and offers his thanks to God.

I tried to dissuade him but he is rather quick for such a hefty man and perhaps I had, had more than I realized. He climbed up to the top of the crow's nest, did a little jig, and promptly fell into the ocean…"

Sango felt her eyes flutter languidly as his warm, amused voice flowed over her. She knew what he was doing. He was trying to get her to relax enough to go to sleep, and to her surprise it was working.

"…Well I couldn't very well let him drown so I searched frantically for a length of rope to tie myself off with and jumped in after him…"

Her lashes fluttered and Miroku chuckled.

"…I managed to pull him back on to the ship and he promptly turned a sickly shade of green and gave his offering to the sea…"

Sango's lashes fluttered again and she lost the battle with her heavy eyelids. They drifted shut. A moment later she was asleep.

Her last thought was the vague realization that she had no idea what a Christian or rum were or how Miroku happened to be so familiar with both.


	6. A MidFall Day's Dream

"**Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."**

**Hamlet – William Shakespeare**

Two days had passed since the incident involving her reoccurring nightmares and although the tension still hummed between them, they had fallen into a semi-comfortable routine.

Sango eyed the monk as he walked a little ahead of her, running her gaze over his form.

He'd changed in the two years he'd been gone. His features had lost some of the boyish handsomeness that had first attracted her so long ago and had grown harder somehow. It was as if what he'd done and the things he'd seen had tempered him like steel.

The changes in his appearance made her wonder what else may have changed and she immediately chastised her traitorous mind. She frowned slightly and reminded herself that she didn't care.

Bolstering her feigned apathy she surveyed the landscape around her.

They were on the outskirts of a small collection of farms, not large enough to call a village, heading towards the woods.

Sango let her mind wander again as they started up a small incline. She'd not spoken to Kagome in almost three weeks and she wondered how her exams had gone. She didn't quite understand what they were for since she knew that her friend had graduated from what she called high school.

She'd thought that in Kagome's time that was the highest level of education to be obtained, but apparently she'd been wrong.

Kagome had said that the exams she had to take were entrance exams so she could get into a university. She'd been inordinately stressed about them.

Sango was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Miroku had stopped at the top of the hill. She ran into him and scowled.

"Houshi, why are you…." He held his hand up, motioning for silence, and pointed to a point in the distance. Annoyed, she followed the direction of his hand with her gaze.

I took a moment for her to process what she was seeing.

She immediately brought Hiraikotsu around and started to run forward but Miroku grasped her arm and stopped her.

She frowned at him. "Let me go, monk."

He wasn't looking at her.

"No taijiya…wait."

She huffed in frustration but stayed still. Whatever her feelings about Miroku she knew that his instincts were almost as well honed as her own.

She paused and surveyed the scene. In the middle of the roadway a farmer's cart lay on its side and blocked the path. She sniffed. The metallic scent of blood lingered in the air and the ground and cart were covered in red.

She felt a flutter of anxiety in her gut. It looked like a massacre had taken place.

Miroku closed his eyes and stretched out his senses. There was a strange aura nearby, but he couldn't seem to tell where it was coming from.

He didn't like this at all.

"There was a farm a few yards to the west of here, was there not?"

She nodded, cocked her head to the side, and asked.

"What are you thinking?"

He frowned. "I'm thinking perhaps we should head towards it. I do not like what I sense here."

Sango was not without her own instincts and she was able to feel demonic aura. She knew though that his ability, at least in this area, exceeded her own.

She frowned and stretched out her senses to their limit. He was right, there was something there.

"You think the farmers will be able to tell us if anything strange has been happening?" She asked. He nodded.

"Yes I do. I want to gather more information before we continue on into the woods."

She silently agreed with him. She'd always been a cautious person, but the war had refined that quality in her. If she had learned anything during that time it was that going into a situation blind had the highest likelihood of getting someone killed.

"Let's go," she said, and started down the hill. They reached the bottom together and headed through a field and towards the farm.

They found the farmer tending his soybeans.

"Hello old man, might we have a moment?" Miroku queried as they drew closer.

The farmer looked up and wiped a sweaty hand across his weathered brow. He narrowed his eyes at the two, taking in Miroku's robes and then shifting his gaze to Sango. His eyes traveled over her form and lingered on her wrists and ankles, where her armor extended passed her yukata.

"Been a long time since I seen a taijiya in these parts. Last I heard they was all but wiped out." He spat and eyed her suspiciously. "You actually a slayer?"

Sango frowned, annoyed. She hated when she encountered this particular problem.

She knew that the old man's suspicions were not unwarranted. When the slayer's village was decimated there were those who were not above claiming they were slayers and bilking villages out of a fee to dispose of troublesome demons, only to sneak off into the night.

"I am a taijiya, old man." He grunted, nodded, and turned to Miroku.

"What's a Buddhist monk and a slayer doing traveling through these parts?"

Miroku gestured towards the woods with his staff.

"We're traveling south to Lord Toyotomi's lands." The old man frowned and shook his head.

"You look like that monk that came through here, must have been almost twenty years ago now. He was headed towards Toyotomi's lands, too."

Miroku started. He couldn't mean…

"Did you speak to this monk?"

He nodded.

"Yep, as matter of fact I did. Nice fella, had a young woman with him. Pretty thing, but a little uppity. Tried to dress down and claimed she was from a village to the north, but she weren't."

Sango assessed him with questioning eyes. "Why do you say that?"

He turned to regard the slayer.

"Cause she weren't no village girl. She had airs and soft hands and I could tell she weren't use to traveling like normal folks. She was nobility. I'd bet my life on it. Saw a bunch of nobles when I was a solider. All had the same look about them. You know…soft."

Sango turned to Miroku.

"You think you know who he was?"

He gazed into the distance and shook his head as if to clear it.

"I think he was my father," he murmured. She blinked in surprise.

"Your father? How is that possible?"

He frowned. He'd suddenly realized that because of the tension between them, he'd never explained to her why he'd received the coin summoning him to Lord Toyotomi's lands or how he'd known what it was. He also knew that now was not the time to review ancient history.

Besides, he needed to think over this knew information. He hadn't known his father had a woman with him when he traveled to the southern lands and he wondered who she'd been.

Perhaps she'd simple been a traveler he'd decided to aid, but that explanation felt wrong to Miroku. He was starting to think that perhaps they should try and get some more information before reaching Toyotomi's domain.

He looked back over his shoulder and frowned thoughtfully.

There was a Buddhist temple slightly southeast of the path they were traveling and if he remembered correctly an old friend of Mushin's and his grandfather was the keeper. Perhaps a detour was in order.

It was something to think about at least.

He ignored Sango's question, earning a glare from the slayer, and turned back to the farmer.

"Tell me old man. Has anything strange been happening around here lately? We came across an overturned cart just over that hill on the way into the woods and it appeared as if someone had been attacked."

The old man shook his head sadly.

"I told that idiot Haku that he shouldn't take the path through the forest, but he didn't listen. The demon that acts as guardian of the woods has gone crazy. Funny thing, he used to be down right gentle, but now…we'll you saw what he did. Haku didn't have a chance, poor sod."

Sango looked at Miroku. "That's why the aura seems strange. It's tainted."

"You think it might be a jewel shard?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. It could be, but only Kagome would be able to tell for sure."

"Hmmm," was his reply. He inclined his head to the farmer. "Thank you for the information."

Miroku bowed and turned to start the hike back across the field and up the hill. Sango scowled at his back, rendered her own thanks, and followed. She caught him just as he reached the top and grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her.

"What are you thinking, monk?"

He craned his neck so that he could look down the hill and into the woods and then faced her.

"I'm thinking that if we decide to go forward we need to be exceedingly cautious. I would suggest that we go around but I know that we can not leave such a dangerous demon alive."

She nodded. "Give me a moment."

Sango stripped off her yukata, revealing her taijiya garb beneath. She packed the kimono away in the bag Kagome had given her, slung it across her chest, and hefted her boomerang.

"All right, let's go." Miroku nodded and they started down the hill and soon reached the edge of the forest.

Both travelers paused at the tree line, listening intently, before cautiously heading into the woods. Miroku took the lead, as he had so often done in the past, and Sango felt another twinge in her heart.

She had forgotten how well they worked together; how well they complimented each other. She also had just realized that for the past few minutes she hadn't been dwelling on her past grievances but on the present situation.

She shook herself, scowled, and gripped Hiraikotsu's leather strap tighter. She needed to continue worrying about the present. It would not do for her mind to be preoccupied while walking into what promised to be a dangerous situation.

She glanced at Miroku. She could tell by the tense lines of his body that he was wary and prepared for anything they might find. Frowning, she stretched out her senses.

The woods were filled with that strange aura that they'd felt on the road, but it was stronger, denser. She followed closely, her arms loose, body ready to react.

She didn't expect what they found.

Miroku suddenly halted and readied his staff. Sango did the same and peered beyond him to see what had captured his attention.

A young boy stood in the middle of the path, blocking the way and appeared to be anywhere from five or six years of age. He had his back to them. Miroku narrowed his eyes. The demonic aura he had sensed crackled around the boy.

Cautiously he took a step forward but halted when Sango forcefully grabbed his robes.

"No, don't," she whispered and looked around. She didn't like this. It felt too much like the day that her father and fellow slayers were betrayed and murdered at Naraku's castle. The boy felt like…

"He's a decoy!" She yelled and pushed Miroku out of the way just as a barbed vine shot out of the ground. She twisted to the side and rolled away and the vine followed her.

Miroku recovered and turned to watch as Sango brought Hiraikotsu around and blocked one vine, spun, drew her sword and slashed through another.

More vines attacked.

Miroku spun his staff around and slashed; cutting a barb that popped up behind him and spun again so he and Sango were back to back.

"Where is it?" He huffed. She had dropped her bone boomerang and now held her blade at ready.

"I don't know." She briefly glanced to where they had seen the boy and was not surprised to find him gone. Silence stretched, an unnatural silence; Sango tensed and felt her muscles quiver in anticipation.

A hiss to her left alerted her. She spun and blocked a barbed vine, rolled, and slashed through another. Miroku twirled his staff and cut three more barbs before realigning with her back.

"Where the hell are they coming from," he growled. Sango didn't respond, focused once again on her surroundings. The tainted aura had become heavy and oppressive and on the air was the cloying sweet smell of decay.

Suddenly four barbed vines shot down from the trees. They broke apart and both rolled out of the way. The barbs retreated and a vaguely humanoid shape being dropped down.

Miroku and Sango stared at the strange demon. He was the same size as the boy they'd seen and made entirely of thorns. Poison dripped from the barbs as the mass of vegetation withered and slithered like billions of snakes.

Glowing yellow eyes peered from beneath the dense foliage and they gleamed with anger and madness.

"You are trespassing in my forest," the demon hissed. Miroku readied his staff and Sango's fingers convulsed over the hilt of her wakizashi.

"You are the guardian of this forest?" He asked, unable to restrain the note of surprise in his voice.

"I am this forest, filthy mortal and you are trespassing."

Miroku's gaze narrowed dangerously.

"Why do you say that, demon? Why are you attacking travelers on this roadway? We have done nothing to you, truly."

"Nothing? Nothing!" The demon roared. "You are a pollutant! You and the rest of your kind. You kill my children, desecrated my trees. You are murderers! Filthy, diseased mammals. He warned me about you, the houshi and the slayer. He warned me that you would come and bring your sickness with you, but I didn't listen, didn't listen."

"Who? Who told you we would come? And why do you do this now? Why do you not live in harmony with the farmers and travelers they way you use to?"

The demon started muttering to himself.

"Diseased, filthy, mongrels…all must die, must die!"

Miroku blocked the vines that suddenly struck out at him and Sango dodged to the right.

"Houshi, can you feel it?" She yelled and grunted as she blocked a barb. "Now that he's so close I can sense it. His aura it's been infected by something dark and evil. Something has driven this demon mad!"

Sango slashed through another barbed vine and spun away just as a thorn slashed through her armor. Luckily, the leather held and repelled the thorns. She cut the vine, spun and hacked another, and another.

They just kept coming.

"Houshi we need to end this!"

Miroku grunted and cut through yet another vine. He agreed but the question was, how? Charging his staff with spiritual energy he used the power to make a shield and pulled two sutras out of his sleeve. He threw them at the demon and they latched on to the black aura dancing around the green edges and it roared in pain.

Two more vines came at him and Sango was there to slice them in half. She sprung backwards, sheathed her short sword, and hefted her boomerang.

"Duck Miroku!" She let the boomerang fly. The giant weapon cleaved the demon in two and returned to her hand. She caught it by the strap and skidded back.

They watched in horror as the vines caught and knitted back together. Miroku dodged right and rolled, bringing his staff around to block another barbed vine. He searched frantically for a solution as the vines kept coming and coming and coming.

He grunted, cut one in half and yelled.

"Sango, throw your boomerang again."

She spun and cut another vine using Hiraikotsu, twisted, and let the boomerang fly. Miroku reached into his robes and pulled out a sutra that looked nothing like the ones he normal used.

This one was printed on a thin layer of pure gold and had been one of a pair presented to him as a gift by a group of monks he'd done a service for in China. They had told him that it was infused with the spiritual energy of their order. Miroku felt apprehension, like a ball of lead, lodge in his gut.

He wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen. Infusing the sutra with his own power he threw it at the demon. There was a brilliant, blinding flash as the sutra hit the demon at the same time as Sango's boomerang.

They ducked and shielded their eyes as the demon screamed in agony.

Slowly the light dissipated and Sango was the first to open her eyes. She blinked against the spots dancing in her vision and focused on the point where the demon had been.

"Miroku," she breathed and pointed. "Look."

The monk opened his eyes and blinked in surprise. Cautiously, he and the slayer slowly started forward and knelt next to the prone body on the ground.

"Is he…"

"No," Miroku said.

"He's a kitsune," Sango murmured in awe. He nodded and bent down to brush the fox kit's golden hair away from his face. Energy crackled where he'd touched him and he yanked his hand back.

"I've never felt an aura like this on a demon. Especially one so young."

Sango frowned. The dark poisonous aura that had overshadowed the young demon was gone and now all that remained was the pure white and green tinted natural aura of the kit. She stretched her own senses and immediately knew what Miroku had meant. He was powerful; she may even venture to say that it was even more powerful than Lord Sesshomaru. The little demon groaned and slowly opened sea green eyes.

"W-Who are you?"

Miroku smiled and helped the boy to his feet.

"Do you know where you are?"

The fox kit blinked and looked around confused.

"I-I was in my cave. How did I get here?"

The monk frowned and crossed his arms. He turned to Sango.

"He doesn't remember." She frowned as well.

"What do you think it means?" Miroku looked off into the horizon, his expression worried.

"I don't know, Sango. I don't know."


	7. Memory

Kagome Higurashi still couldn't believe the news Kaede had greeted them with when she and InuYasha had returned through the well. Miroku had returned, and he and Sango had been summoned to a distant castle.

It was enough to send her mind reeling.

She shivered and wrapped her arms tightly around her slim frame to ward off the chill. Goshinboku towered above her and she watched the leaves of the god tree rustle in the gathering breeze.

She could only imagine what Sango had to be feeling. When Miroku had left her friend had been angry and heartbroken. It seemed nothing any of them could do would bring her any sort of comfort and then the war had started.

Kagome shivered again and this time it had nothing to do with the wind. The war had changed so many things. In Sango's case she had watched her friend go from impressive solitary warrior to impressive leader. The taijiya had been the one the humans in Sesshomaru's lands had trusted the most and they had made her their general. She had been reluctant to take such a role but she had taken to it like a duck to water.

She had matched her skills with those of Sesshomaru and InuYasha, planning and rejecting strategies like a seasoned solider. Witnessing her transformation had been equal parts awe inspiring and sobering, but despite all they had accomplished together the sadness that was so much a part of Sango's character, still lurked deep in her eyes.

There had been days in the last two years, or if she was being really truthfully since they had met, when it was all Kagome could do not to pull the older girl into a hug and try to comfort her. She resisted the urge, most of the time; because Sango was a very private person and would probably be uncomfortable with the fact that Kagome could read her so very well.

It helped that she was so attuned to her friend. Kagome was able to pick up on many of the subtle emotional clues that Sango probably wasn't even aware she had and that, combined with Kagome's naturally empathetic nature, put the younger girl in the unique position of understanding the slayer better than most would. The only person who knew Sango better was the one currently traveling gods knew where with her and he was probably the very last person she wanted to have such intimate knowledge.

Kagome had mixed feelings when it came to Miroku. She had missed him like she would and annoying older sibling who had the bad habit of occasionally groping her at odd moments. She paused, frowned, and swiftly banished that disturbing thought from her mind before she could analyze it too closely.

She had ached for the pain his departure had caused Sango, but at the same time she had defended him when her friend's rage got the better of her and she started spouting ridiculous nonsense about the monk following his, err libido, to greener pastures. The monk had been many things, an incurable lecher and con man among them, but he was not disloyal.

He could be kind when need be, much more courageous than he was given credit for, and he possessed a very keen mind. In short Miroku was noble. He would not have endeared himself to them he had had not been.

Kagome also knew one very important thing without a shadow of doubt. Miroku loved Sango, completely and irrevocably.

For him to leave her behind could only mean that something had gone drastically wrong. She just wished he had stayed and faced whatever it was with them instead of striking out on his own.

Kagome sank down to lean against the base of Goshinboku and looked up. She wasn't surprised to find a pair of liquid golden eyes staring back at her. InuYasha often sat in the branches of the great tree. It was the place where he always sought sanctuary when his mind was troubled.

Patiently, she waited for him to acknowledge her presence and she wasn't at all surprised when she heard his soft "keh," as he dropped down to kneel in front of her.

"I though I told you to stop wandering around here by yourself, stupid."

Kagome sighed and refused to rise to his baiting tone. She wasn't in the mood to fight with him. Instead she reached out her hand and laced slim fingers with his clawed ones. He flushed deep red but allowed her to pull him down next to her. She sighed again and rested her head on his shoulder.

His red hitoe was soft under her cheek and she nuzzled the fabric. InuYasha was still flushed but he didn't shift away from her soft curves or release her hand. They sat together like that for a few moments absorbing the silence. Kagome unconsciously caressed the rough skin of his hand lightly with her thumb, causing warmth to spread through the hanyou's entire body.

"Kagome?" He questioned his voice almost a growl. She snuggled closer and his free arm curved around her small waist, his palm coming to rest on her hip.

"You know, we never talked about it but I know that Miroku leaving hit you pretty hard," she mumbled.

"Keh," he scoffed and turned his face away from her. He didn't register the fact that he had tightened his grip on her, but Kagome did. She reached up with her free hand, grasped his chin lightly, and coaxed his golden eyes back to her face.

"InuYasha, talk to me. Miroku was your best friend. It had to hurt when he left."

He would have turned away again but she had not moved her hand. Her palm slide up his cheek and her thumb started caressing him with small undulating circles. The combined feeling of her soft skin gently rubbing both his face and hand undid him and he lost the will to pull away from her.

"I don't get all mushy like you weak humans. Besides it's not like Miroku isn't a grown fucking man. He can do what he likes." _And did_, his mind added.

Kagome frowned, feeling disappointed. She dropped her arm and pulled away from him. He almost whimpered at the lost contact but managed to swallow the sound.

Kagome gracefully rose to her feet and stood over him. She flashed him a false smile.

"I'm going back to the village to help Kaede dry those herbs we found this morning."

He shrugged, pretending an indifference he didn't feel.

"Whatever, just be careful. The old bat told me there have been a lot of demons around here lately."

Kagome shook her head, frustrated. "Stubborn," she muttered and turned to walk away from him. If she hadn't been so attuned to him she wouldn't have heard his next word.

"Wait." She stopped and twisted to face him. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.

"Maybe I was sorta pissed at him but I figured the old lecher wouldn't of left if it wasn't important."

He didn't add that he figured he'd just hit him a few times for being an idiot and trying to handle everything on his own when he saw him again. So what if it hurt to have the only male he had ever trusted enough to call friend, leave without a backwards glace? So what if Miroku filled the role of older brother/dubious father figure in his life? He was a guy and he wasn't going to admit to anyone how much his friend's absence hurt…ever.

Kagome graced him with a small, knowing smile and he had the sneaky suspicion she knew what was going through his head. He scowled and opened his mouth to say something defensive that would more than likely get him "sat" but before he could his sensitive ears picked up a sound in the distance.

A low growl rumbled in throat and he grabbed Kagome and placed her behind him so her back was to Goshinboku. He drew Tetsusaiga with his other hand and scented the air.

He relaxed when he caught the familiar scent of Kirara.

The nekomata flew over the trees and landed in front of them, she appeared upset and whined piteously. InuYasha's eyes narrowed and Kagome let out a startled yelp when they caught sight of the small girl lying on her back. She appeared to be unconscious.

"Chie!" Kagome exclaimed and pushed around InuYasha to run to the child. Kirara whined again and nudged the girl with her nose just as Kagome swept her into her arms. The little girl's dark eyes fluttered open.

"Kagome, Yasha…the village…demons attacked the village…they got…poppa…please…you must…"

She lost consciousness.

"Chie!" Kagome cried, "Chie!" The little girl did not respond.

"InuYasha look she's hurt!" Kagome's hand pressed against the girl's side and it came away sticky with blood. "We need to get her to the village."

InuYasha nodded once and held out his hands.

"I'll carry her. Kirara take Kagome." The nekomata answered by offering her back to the young miko. Kagome wasted no time in climbing aboard.

"I'll meet you in the village," InuYasha said, and took to the trees. Kirara's paws flared and a moment later they were airborne.

She only hoped they weren't too late.

* * *

Later that night Sango and Miroku had found a small cave on the other side of the forest. They kitsune they had freed had long since returned to his home and the oppressive aura that had consumed him had disappeared from the forest.

Sango watched the firelight dance over Miroku's face as he stared into the flames, lost in thought. She found that she wished she knew what he was thinking, but she was almost afraid to ask.

She had felt uneasy since they'd returned the kit to his cave. He'd told them that he had no memory of the presence that had taken him over and he had no memory of the vast period of time that he'd been overshadowed. His last discernable memory had been making dinner in his cliff side cave.

Sango could feel the energy crackling around the kit as they had walked through his forest, and the fact that there was something out there with the power to turn such a powerful demon into a puppet caused shivers to traverse her spine.

She sighed softly and her attention wandered to Miroku. She regarded him in the silence. It had been so natural to fall back into the easy pattern of fighting side by side with him. They had always moved well together, like they were attuned to each other thoughts.

She felt her heart clench. She needed to stop doing this. She needed to stop remembering how it had been between them or else she was going to drive herself crazy.

Sango was startled out of her musings when he suddenly spoke.

"I never told you the reason why I honored the summons of the coin and returned."

She gave him a puzzled look, wondering what this had to do with their current situation and indicated he had not with a shake of her head.

"It was because my family was bound in service to Lord Toyotomi. My grandfather, Miyatsu, had been traveling through his lands and was asked to perform an exorcism for him. This was not long after he received our curse from Naraku and he'd not yet mastered the wind tunnel. He agreed to perform the exorcism for the shogun and something went wrong. He accidental pulled Lord Toyotomi's nephew into the void."

Sango gasped. "Gods Miroku."

He nodded sadly and stirred the fire. "The mistake was a horrible one and his journals reflect the heavy sense of shame he felt. He had been more than willing to accept the forfeit of his life had the shogun demanded it, even knowing that such a thing would mean that he would never be able to take his revenge on Naraku. But he was given an alternative. Lord Toyotomi was willing to accept three services to be rendered by my grandfather and his descendants."

"So that's why you think that man the farmer spoke of may have been your father."

He nodded.

"The rest of the information contained in his journals is sketchy at best. He writes of receiving the coin and some of the incidents that occurred on his journey south but he did not record what was asked of him. My father also received the summons, but I was very young at the time and my memory of those events is vague."

He grew silent and a haunted look danced in his indigo orbs. Sango bit her lip and prompted him when it seemed he wasn't going to continue.

"What do you remember, Miroku?" He lifted his tortured gaze to hers.

"I remember the look on his face when he returned. I remember that my father refused to speak of whatever he'd done. I could tell though…it haunted him. You see now why I had to return. I need to find out what happened, why my father and my grandfather both came away from Toyotomi's lands missing a piece of their souls."

Sango looked away and gazed into the fire. Now she knew why he'd returned. Part of her had foolishly hoped…but that wasn't important.

"We'll find your answers, houshi."

_We'll find them, or die trying_, she thought.


	8. One Step Back

"_**Lord, what fools these mortals be!"**_

_**William Shakespeare – A Mid-Summer Night's Dream**_

They left the cave at dawn, spending a brief moment checking on the kitsune before continuing south on the main path. Neither the monk nor the slayer spoke much, but this time the silence hanging between them was less hostile and more contemplative.

Their conversation last evening had given Sango a lot to think about. She frowned slightly. The more she learned of the coins and the summons the more uneasy she'd become about leaving her village. She couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding that had gripped spirit since encountering the possessed kitsune.

For the life of her though she couldn't understand why she felt this way. Even if there was some nefarious purpose behind the summons she would be the logical target, not her village. In fact she could see no purpose whatsoever in attacking her people. Still the nagging sensation that something had happened gnawed at her. She glanced at Miroku briefly, finding him lost in his own thoughts. She wondered what he was thinking.

Frustration clawed at her. They really needed more information. Her thoughts drifted away again and she frowned when something troubling occurred to her. The recent unrest among her people had started when Tatsuo had arrived. Tatsuo made no secret of being from the south and boasted frequently of having been the vassal to a very important Lord.

Could the Lord that Tatsuo had served been Toyotomi? He'd caused trouble for her from day one, whispering deceit and spreading what had at first seemed petty rumors. But something in his poison had worked and it has been spreading slowly and steadily through her people.

But why would Toyotomi care about undermining her authority? What purpose would such a thing serve other than to alienate her from her village?

This line of reasoning led her to another question. Would she have made this journey if she'd still been sure of her position amongst her people?

She bit her lip. The answer would most likely have been no, she would not have made the journey simply because the money was not worth the time she had to spend away from her village and her brother. Then there were her obligations to Kagome and InuYasha to consider.

Of course, this was all speculation. She had absolutely no proof that Tatsuo worked for Toyotomi and it wasn't like she was going to be able to come up with any miles away from her home. Still, if her supposition were true it threw a whole new light on this journey and confirmed that her fears were not without merit.

She looked up and noticed she'd lagged behind and did a quick little jog in order to catch up to Miroku. He gazed at her curiously.

"I've been thinking, houshi. You seem to understand part of the reason you've been summoned to Lord Toyotomi's palace, and it got me wondering what my purpose might be. I no longer believe the story presented by the vassal when he delivered my coin, not that I truly believed it in the first place. It seems too convenient."

Miroku frowned. "I confess I was thinking much the same thing. I do not like the fact that there was a hitherto unknown woman traveling with my father when he made his crossing to the southern lands. I started me wondering if perhaps she was summoned to journey with him just as you have been summoned to journey with me. It could be a coincidence, but…"

Sango's brow creased. "I don't know, Miroku. Simply because she was female and I'm female, does not seem to point to anything other than the fact that your father met a woman during his travels. We have no proof that she was summoned with him, nor do we really know anything about her."

"Actually taijiya, we do know a few things. For instance, we know that she was pretending to be a commoner."

Sango shook her head, disagreeing. "But we only have the farmer's word for it and Miroku, no offense, but twenty years is a long time. Can we really be sure his recollections of such a brief encounter are accurate?"

He smiled. "He remembered enough about my father to see the resemblance between him and I, and he remembered that my father was a monk. I believe that we can trust his impressions of my father and the woman, even though so much time has passed."

She sighed, exasperated. "Miroku, you don't know for sure that man was your father. He could simply have been a monk who looked like you. It's not like it would be the first time someone mistook you for someone else."

Miroku winced slightly at the memory. She was not so subtly reminding him of the time Hachi had decided to parade through the countryside wearing his face and bilking villagers out of their money and hospitality.

"That was an entirely different situation and besides the theory that the man was my father is not that farfetched. He was a monk, he was traveling south to Lord Toyotomi's lands, and the timeline fits."

She looked as if she was going to disagree again, but fell silent. She knew arguing with Miroku on this subject was moot. They couldn't really prove any of it and they would simply continue going round and round in circles if they kept discussing it.

She sighed. "Come on, monk. We're burning daylight." She picked up the pace forcing him to keep up with her.

The day wore on and neither spoke again until evening descended and they found themselves on the outskirts of a rather large village.

Miroku, being Miroku, wasted no time finding the inn, much to Sango's chagrin. She felt the scowl twist her face as she watched the houshi smile charmingly at the innkeeper and his beautiful wife. When she noticed the look the other woman was giving the monk her scowl deepened. She felt an immediate and completely unwanted flare of, dare she think it, jealously.

She felt her heart clench and fought down the growl that clawed at her throat.

She wasn't jealous, she told herself firmly. That would imply that she still wanted him and still cared and she knew that she couldn't afford such feelings. Not if she wanted to come through this damnable journey with her heart intact.

"My good innkeeper, I fear that you're inn is possessed by the spirit of a demon. I would be more than happy to perform an exorcism. All I would ask for in return would be the kind offer of lodgings for my companion and myself, separate of course," he added, upon catching Sango's murderous gaze.

The gullible innkeeper twisted his fingers nervously.

"My wife and I would be most grateful for your assistance monk, and I will gladly give you room and board in exchange for an exorcism. Perhaps too, you will allow me to offer you a meal as well? I admit that the thought of a demon infesting my walls has me greatly a feared and I, of course, would do anything to protect my lovely new bride."

Sango glared as the woman preened for the handsome monk and her lips twisted into a frown when she took in the form of the much older and soft-bellied innkeeper. She normally would not be so unkind, but it was apparent by the gleam of invitation in the eyes of the woman that she had not married her current husband out of any sort of great affection.

Her gaze narrowed on the houshi only to find that he was completely ignoring the woman. She blinked, suddenly confused. Usually Miroku had lecher radar when it came to women, especially women who were more than willing to spend a night in the monk's company.

"I am humbled by your generosity and thank you for the bed and the meal."

Sango caught her disbelieving snort before it could leave her throat.

_Laying it on a bit thick aren't we houshi? _She thought and hid her smile behind her hand. She had to bite the inside of her cheek when she caught the relieved look on the innkeeper's pudgy face. She looked again at his wife who was now pouting slightly since Miroku had not responded to her flirtations. _Poor man, _she thought. _He was going to have a time of it being married to her._

She turned her attention back to Miroku and watched as he placed his sutras in strategic places on the outside of the inn, bowed his head, and made a motion with his right hand. She blinked suddenly and frowned.

He was using his right hand and for a moment there the air had seemed to shimmer and it had looked as if he still had his prayer beads wrapped around it. She shook her head and looked again only to see smooth, unblemished skin.

"Come; let me show you to your rooms, yes?" The innkeeper offered. Sango tore her attention away from the monk, still uneasy about what she had thought she'd seen, and nodded.

Her mind must be playing tricks on her.

* * *

Miroku knew he'd had too much sake and his head buzzed pleasantly as he stumbled down the hallway. The innkeeper had been a surprising jovial companion once he'd started drinking and they had stayed up together swapping stories and overindulging until well into the night. 

Sango had gone to bed early but not before shaking her head and sending him a reproving look. He smiled suddenly. He had missed that. She was so darn cute when she was trying to look severe. Her eyes would flash, her lips would thin, and she would put those slim hands on equally slim hips while she glared at him for all she was worth.

It made him want to go and loosen her up in the worst possible way and had led to a number of highly licentious fantasies. Caught up in some very pleasant memories and inebriated, he didn't realize he wasn't alone until a feminine hand snuck out and pulled him into an empty room.

He frowned, confused, and turned to find the innkeeper's wife standing before him in her sleeping kimono. The material was silk and sheer and he could tell, even in his drunken state that she wore no wrapping underneath.

"It seems my husband has shared his sake with you monk. He must have been really impressed with you because he seldom drinks with guests. Now it is my turn to show you how hospitable we can be."

Miroku's frown deepened as the woman licked her full lips and let the material pool around her bare ankles. She stood before him, naked, her full, firm breasts pink tipped and aroused and her slim fingers dipping between silky thighs.

He licked his lips and felt his body respond but otherwise found that the beauty before him left him surprisingly…cold.

In the past such a blatant invitation would have pleased him immensely and he would have wasted no time taking her up on her offer, but time and circumstance had changed him. He may not have been celibate on his journey, but he had become more selective and even then the experiences had been unfulfilling. The sad truth was that he had found himself fantasizing about Sango whenever he'd bedded another woman and the bittersweet ache it always created had left him despondent.

He'd eventually stopped altogether.

She didn't seem to realize his reaction was not a positive one and walked forward so she could twine her hands around his neck. She stood on her bare toes and kissed him full on the mouth and Miroku kissed her back in reaction before suddenly wrenching away and pushing her gently away from him.

"What is it? What's the matter?" He shook his head to clear it.

"You're husband is waiting for you." He said and turned, and walked away from her.

The rejection took a moment to sink in and the woman went from surprised to pissed in less than a second.

"Are you refusing me? How can you not want to have sex with me? Aren't I beautiful?"

Miroku paused. "Physically you are quite stunning, but I have come to understand that physical pleasure is only fleeting. You're husband loves you. Return to him and stop this foolishness."

Miroku stumbled out and the innkeeper's wife glared at him.

"You bastard. You will regret this, houshi."

Miroku ignored her. Instead he stumbled down the hall and into what he thought was his room. He had stripped down to his inner robes, baring his chest and securing them around his hips. It was too hot tonight and he would have simply slept in the nude but he was afraid that the innkeeper's wife might not have given up for the night.

He stumbled about a bit and fell into the futon near the far wall only to turn and find a set of soft curves under his hands and against his chest. He frowned, confused.

"Mmmmm…what…" A familiar, sleepy voice sounded near his ear. He shook his head as if to clear it.

"Sango?" He questioned. The woman turned, still half asleep. "Mmmm Miroku," she purred and suddenly he felt her hands climb up his chest and rub languidly. He sucked in a ragged breath and closed his eyes.

"Sango," he breathed and felt her hands creep innocently down and trace the area around his abdomen where his robes were secured. It had a sobering effect as he felt his body turn instantly hard.

He should pull away; he knew he should pull away. She wasn't even awake for Kami sake, but he just couldn't as he felt those slightly roughed hands crawled over his skin, exploring. He smirked. He loved the fact that her hands weren't soft and baby smooth like some of the other women he'd been with. Sango had hands that had never been idle a day in her life, she had warrior hands.

Those hands dipped lower and under his robes and he sucked in a breath. Sango groaned in her sleep and Miroku panted.

Sweet Kami he needed to stop her. He couldn't let her do this, but then she stroked his hard length and he lost all coherent thought.

"Miroku," she panted and her hand moved faster. He moaned, loudly. He had to stop her, this wasn't right, she was asleep. He couldn't bring himself to move. Suddenly he felt a tightening in his sex and he gritted his teeth as he felt his release stain his robes. Sango stilled her hand and she opened her eyes.

She was staring at him and she looked mortified.

"Sango I…" he started. She suddenly jerked her hand away and stumbled away from him.

"What are you doing here? Get out!" she screeched. He sighed. Gathered his robes and pushed himself to his feet, swaying slightly.

"I apologize, Sango. I'm afraid I may have consumed too much sake and I mistakenly thought this was my room."

She glared at him, shaking with rage and embarrassment.

"You expect me to believe that? I swear Miroku, you haven't changed a bit. You're still a filthy lecher."

He stilled and felt his anger boil and in two strides he was in front of her.

Without vacillation he wrapped one arm around her waist, pulled her against his body, and kissed her. She stiffened but when he ran his tongue along the seam of her full lips and forced her to open for him she felt her body charge. He groaned and his tongue explored her hot mouth, running along hers, over the roof and along her teeth. She felt her knees shake.

Suddenly he pulled back and she looked at him with glazed eyes. He smirked and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"My dear Sango, it wasn't I who had my hand wrapped around your sex. Now who's the lecher?"

It took a moment for his words to register but when they did she blushed furiously and pushed him away. He let her go and started laughing.

"Damn you, houshi," she snarled. He gave her a jaunty wave and went out the door. A moment later he heard a loud thump and the door wobbled. She had thrown something. Feeling more relaxed than he had in a long time he whistled as he made his way into his own room.


	9. Forgiveness

_**Something always brings me back to you -- It never takes too long -- No matter what I say or do I'll still feel you here 'til the moment I'm gone -- You hold me without touch -- You keep me without chains -- I never wanted anything so much than to drown in your love and not feel your rain.**_

_**Sara Bareilles - Gravity**_

She was still fuming the next day and barely speaking to him.

Sango went through the motions of making camp and he discreetly watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her motions were jerky and clumsy, so unlike her and she would flush or glare at him at intervals.

He sighed. It seemed that when it came to Sango he really was incapable of doing anything right.

Miroku was now sure the gods hated him. He picked up at long stick and stoked the fire. He wished he could control the fire inside his gut as easily.

Frustrated, the young monk threw the stick on the burning pile in disgust. He had the control of a ten year old boy and it was starting to annoy him. For the past few days he had traveled with her and he had behaved, even when he felt his hand twitch with the irresistible urge to curve his fingers around her luscious ass only to end up in her room…doing that.

Now she was even more skittish around him than before.

All right, to be fair it wasn't just his predisposition to lecherous behavior that had Sango jumpy around him, it was the fact that he had left her without a backwards glance.

Miroku involuntarily twitched his hand. He hated Naraku even more dead than he had when he was alive. At least alive the hope for a future glimmered on the horizon, however brief and insignificant.

He sighed and kicked at a nearby rock, catching it and sending it rolling down the hill.

Being around Sango was a special kind of hell all on its own. He wanted to get on his knees before her and confesses everything. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to be free to love her in every way a man could love a woman.

He picked up another stick and poked at the fire and she suddenly stood up stiffly.

"I'm going to the hot spring to take a bath," she announced.

He forced his face into a bland mask and simply nodded. She flushed again, gathered her bathing supplies and left. Miroku watched her with hooded eyes until she was out of his sight.

He frowned. Sake and desire did not mix well. He shook his head. To be truthfully, sake or no, the minute she touched him he was gone. He could no more have pulled away from her last night than he could sew his wind tunnel shut. She simply rendered him powerless.

He felt his cock twitch and he ruthlessly poked the fire. She was never going to forgive him he thought, disgusted.

He sighed and contemplated the nature of destiny yet again. Before Naraku's death he would have given his right arm for something like last night to happen between the beautiful taijiya and himself, but now, sweet Kami it just made everything harder. Miroku stilled and shuddered as a despairing thought occurred to him.

He couldn't leave her again. He wouldn't survive it.

He scowled.

Not that he planned on surviving anyway, but now the fact was simply twenty times more painful than it had been while he was traveling. He realized that he had managed to distance himself from the vital woman he loved and although the prospect of his wind tunnel taking him in some distant foreign land was bittersweet it did not cause this ache of loss and rage that being with her had lodged in the pit of his stomach.

He shivered. They had been slowly falling back into a sense of camaraderie these past few days and now she hated him yet again which, perhaps, was for the best. She needed to hold on to her anger. Her anger would keep her safe.

He glared at his right hand, flexed his fingers, and winced.

Her anger would keep her alive. By the gods he needed to remember that.

Miroku stirred the fire and scowled deeper. He had been selfish. He'd allowed himself to fall back into familiar patterns because it soothed the ache in his weary heart but in the process he'd allowed Sango to warm to him again and she was safer hating him.

Kami, when did it all become so damn complicated? And why did he know deep down, when all was said and done, that despite the fact that her hatred would keep her safe he was powerless to stop himself from trying to blunt the edge of her detestation towards him.

He frowned. He only hoped that this incident caused enough fury in her to allow for some distance between them, because he knew that he would not be able to sustain it.

He just wasn't strong enough to resist the woman he loved.

Fate truly was a nasty bitch.

* * *

Sango needed to get out of camp before she burst into flames from embarrassment. 

"I'm going to the hot springs to take a bath," she announced suddenly.

In the past such an announcement would have been met with a raised, hopeful eyebrow and a lecherous grin. Now he simply poked the fire, gazed at her blandly, and nodded. She huffed and stalked off and she heard him sigh.

Worrying her lip between her teeth she took off to the east and fought the urge to look back. She could feel him watching her.

She only managed to relax when she reached the trees and only then did she allow herself to feel the full extent of her mortification at her actions last night.

Kami she'd…he'd…she closed her eyes, collected herself, and opened them. It didn't matter that she was half asleep and thought she was dreaming and it certainly didn't matter that he was drunk. She'd still…touched him.

She felt a shiver dance over her spine. She could still feel him moving against her hand, still hear his moans, and she was annoyed when she felt her thighs grow sticky under her kimono.

If that hadn't held up a big sign that practically flashed 'I still want you' she didn't know what did. Groaning, she reached the springs, looked around, and disrobed. She sighed in contentment when she felt the warm water caress her naked flesh. It felt like heaven.

She allowed her travel worn body to soak for a minute and let her mind drift over the last few days, skipping over last night.

She hadn't expected him to surprise her.

In the village, when the innkeeper's wife had made her interest so blatant she half expected Miroku to jump at the opportunity. It would have been the perfect excuse to hate him. But he didn't and then they…she flushed.

A disturbing though flittered across her brain and she sunk lower into the water.

She had always thought she had known Miroku so well, but now she was starting to realize that she didn't know him at all. The longer they traveled together the harder it became to hang on to the anger she'd clung to as a way to keep her sanity, and if she were truly being honest with herself she had to admit it was all but gone.

She could even feel the self-righteous rage from last night slowly dripping away. After all, her rage had mostly been directed at herself and she had used it to cover the intense embarrassment she had felt and was still feeling. She had stroked him like a wanton little hussy and, Kami save her, she had loved every minute of it.

She sighed and ran her finger tips over the surface of the warm water. She had been trying to convince herself that there was nothing between them any longer, not even friendship.

How wrong she had been.

These last few days she didn't seem to know whether she was coming or going, a feeling she absolutely hated. Part of her, the weak, cowardly part of her heart that she hid from everyone around her, wished he would have taken the woman up on her blatant offer so she had an excuse not to care.

The equally hidden, reckless part of her wished that he had taken their drunken and sleep deprive activity to the next logical step.

The biggest part of her though, just wanted to stop hurting and the confused part of her was starting to realize that, for the most part…she had.

She scowled and drew her knees up to her chest, hugging them. Looking around memories swamped her.

She suddenly missed Kagome very, very much. Sango sighed.

"Why am I complaining? It's not like I wanted him to…." _touch me, kiss me, make love to me, _her traitorous mind added

What the hell was wrong with her? She had actually found that she was disappointed that he hadn't attempted to seduce her.

The tight feeling that had been growing in her gut intensified and she had a deeply disturbing and painful thought.

She no longer knew who Miroku was.

"What do I do, Kagome?"

Her friend, of course was hundreds of years away and could not answer, but the simply act of questioning allowed the slayer to imagine her response.

_Maybe you should stop punishing him for the past and try to understand him now._

She sighed. She had been punishing him for the past because no matter how hard she tried she couldn't seem to keep the past from controlling her life.

If the last few days had taught her nothing else they had taught her one thing. Whatever had caused him to leave was much more complicated and painful than she had believed.

In fact, now she was starting to become ashamed of the reasons she had invented for his absence from her life. She also now knew that it was her insecurities about him, and herself that had allowed her to flippantly believe he left because he had wanted to be free to fornicate with whom he wished.

She was starting to believe that she hadn't known Miroku at all.

Mostly though, she was afraid that she wanted to truly know him now. She knew he was leaving again and she wasn't sure if her heart would survive.

"When did I become such a coward?"

_Sango, you are not a coward. You've just had some…bad luck._

She smiled as Kagome's voice drifted through her mind and lazily made circles in the water with her fingers.

No, she had been a coward and it was not a role she was comfortable with. She sighed again and solemnly picked up the bar of soap she had rested on the rock next to her.

She realized that despite the fact that his leaving had caused her so much pain, he could still comfort her with merely his presence. This time around she knew he was leaving and maybe…maybe she should see the time she had been given with him as an opportunity, instead of a burden. Sango made a decision.

"Peace Miroku…It is time for…peace."

The wind blew, the stars twinkled, and on the night air the universe sighed. It was the sound of a soul letting go, it was the sound of surrender, and it was the sound of healing.

Somewhere in the cosmos, a deity was happy.

* * *

Miroku was still playing with the fire when she returned. 

"Miroku?" The monk started at the sound of his name and looked up. Sango sat down in front of him and was looking at him as if she had never seen him before. He sat back and regarded her silently.

"I wanted to…I was hoping…" She took a deep breath. "I think we need to start over. We need to forget about last night, forget about all of it, and move forward. I need peace between us houshi, for my sanity if nothing else."

He was silent for a moment, regarding her. He stirred the fire again.

"Sango about last night, I did not plan what happened, but nor do I regret it and I can not promise to forget about it." _It will probably be the only memory with the power to sustain me once I leave you again, _he thought.

She sighed. "I was afraid you would say something like that, but regardless it does not change anything. Surely you understand that?"

He poked the fire again, much more viciously and gritted his teeth. _Damn Naraku to hell._

"As much as it pains me…yes I do."

She bit her lip and looked away for a moment. She seemed to be coming to some sort of internal conclusion. Finally, she seemed satisfied, nodded, and turned back to him.

"I was wondering…tell me about your travels."

It was a question and a plea and he was helpless in the face of it.

"I…What do you want to know?" She picked at her yukuta with nervous fingers.

"I don't know…everything. It occurred to me that I don't…well that I don't know anything about you anymore and I think I would like to just…know."

He studied her for a few moments longer and was wondering why she had this sudden urge to ask him about his time away from her. He was half tempted to call her out but the more needy part of him wanted to just tell her...everything.

He decided to settle for half.

"Where should I start?"

She locked her brown orbs with his violet ones. She wanted to say start where you left me, but figured that wouldn't go well with her new resolve to make peace between them.

"Start at the beginning."

"The beginning…well the night I…left I journeyed west to the coast and met a Chinese merchant sailing for the continent. I bartered for passage and left the soil of my homeland for the first time."

As Miroku spoke Sango found herself getting lost in his words. He had always been a wonderful story teller and he was even more compelling relaying the story of his travels. She felt as if she had been there with him, had met the people he spoke of, and had seen the wondrous things he had seen.

It was like his voice was a portal to another world. He became extremely animated when he spoke of a place called Rome. A city that rivaled the most ornate palace with churches built to a God she had never even known existed. He told her of India and the wealth and savage beauty of that land filled with forests and deserts and animals he had never seen the like of. He told her and it was like getting a piece of her heart back.

He was well into a tale of a Sultan that was to have him put to death because Miroku had inadvertently stumbled upon his harem when she yawned. He paused mid-telling.

"You're tired Sango. Why don't you get some sleep?" She waved him off.

"No I'm fine. I want to see how it ends." He shook his head firmly.

"Tomorrow maybe, tonight you need to sleep." She yawned again and lay down on her bed roll as she nodded.

"All right, but that doesn't get you out of telling me." He gave her an indulgent smile.

"Far be it from me to deny a lady anything." She smiled and he went to bed down on his side of the fire. Silence descended and for a startling moment all was at peace until.

"Miroku, did you…did you find what you were looking for?" Miroku debated on whether or not to answer.

"No Sango, no I didn't." She seemed to want to ask more but she was fighting a losing battle with her eyelids. They fluttered drowsily and she almost didn't hear him say.

"If I had it would have made my life truly, complete."


	10. On the Way to Grandma's House

_**A/N: All right, I am only gonna say this once. I hate Kikyo. She freaking needs to die…again. She will be mentioned in this story but she is not going to play any sort of big part in the action, and out of deference to those who happen to like her I will not stoop so low as to bash her (At least in the story text). And that's all I have to say about that.**_

_**"God send everyone their heart's desire!"  
**_

_**William Shakespeare – Much Ado About Nothing**_

Kagome held tightly to InuYasha's shoulders and instinctively tighten the grip her thighs had around his waist when he soared high into the air and landed on a far off tree, only to push off again. He grunted, but didn't say anything.

She normally would have enjoyed flying through the trees with the hanyou, but her mind was still on Chie.

"Do you think Chie is going to be all right?" she questioned, her warm breath tickling his sensitive ears. The right one twitched and he frowned.

"Keade said she would and Kohaku will be with her."

She smiled softly. That had been a surprise considering that Sango's little brother usually didn't react to others that way. Apparently he was very fond of Chie and when the little girl had grasped his hand and asked him not to leave her he has twined his fingers with hers and stayed.

Kohaku didn't like to be touched. Usually the only ones who could get away with hugging him or holding him where Sango and herself; she had been pleasantly surprised when the boy had agreed to Chie's request of his own volition. It was a sign that perhaps, after all this time, he was finally healing.

InuYasha suddenly stopped and when they landed on the next tree and Kagome was almost unseated. He felt her slip and immediately tightened his clawed hands around her silky thighs, ignoring the heat that threatened to crawl up his neck.

Kagome gasped, righted herself, and asked.

"Why are we stopping?" He scowled.

"I smell blood, human blood. Blood that I a smelled before." A worried frown creased her delicate features.

"Whose?"

"It's Isamu's"

InuYasha felt the slight tremble she couldn't contain against his back. He unconsciously held her tighter and she gripped his shoulders convulsively.

He briefly thought that maybe he should leave her here, but he knew that she would throw a fit and from the smell of things they didn't have time to waste. Besides, he could protect her better if she was with him.

"Hang on," he growled and leapt. She tightened her hold as they sailed down from the tree and landed gracefully on the ground. InuYasha sniffed the air and took off to the north. He grunted as branches slapped against his face and finally he cleared the growth and stumbled into a small clearing. Kagome gasped.

"Oh Isamu." She struggled to be let down. InuYasha held her there, senses alert. She huffed in annoyance.

"InuYasha! Let me down. Isamu is hurt." She struggled some more and he felt his annoyance spike.

"Stop that, dammit. We're not alone."

Kagome, who had been about to sit him, gasped and went still. Confident now that she wouldn't try to run to the injured man he slowly let her go and gritted his teeth when he felt her soft curves rub sensuously against his back. _Not the time or place, _he thought disgusted with himself.

He scowled. Those moments of awareness between him and the miko were becoming more frequent and they needed to stop, dammit. He chanced a glance at her out of the corner of his eye and drew his sword.

His problem lately was that Kagome at fifteen had been undeniable beautiful but Kagome at nineteen was drop-dead-too-sexy-for-her-own-good-gorgeous. His protective instincts had been going haywire. He completely ignored the voice in the back of his head saying those weren't the only instincts shorting out.

He growled, drew Tetsusaiga and made sure Kagome was behind him. She in turn had drawn her bow and notched an arrow, a look of determination twisting her features.

"Where?" she asked. He pointed with his chin.

"Beyond those trees. Ogre demons. Smells like five or six of them."

She nodded and shifted so her weapon was pointed in the direction he indicated. InuYasha grinned and yelled.

"Keh, I know you're there so you smelly bastards might as well come out and fight."

There was a loud roar and suddenly five very large demons burst out and ran at them. Kagome let her arrow fly. It glowed pink with her miko power and pierced the heart of the first brute. The ogre screamed as its youkai blood was purified and it dissipated into ash.

InuYasha wielded Tetsusaiga and slashed two of the demons before they could get close to him, but the fourth and fifth caught him with giant clubs and sent him flying. He sailed backwards and slammed into the trunk of a large tree with a loud grunt.

Kagome managed to leap aside as the ogre closest to her brought his club down where her head had been, but she was too slow to avoid his backhand slap. InuYasha watched the miko as her head snapped to the side and she was thrown to the ground. She didn't move.

Pain sharp and sudden clenched his heart as he gazed on her prone form. He could smell blood, her blood. Suddenly a half mad howl tore from his throat and red tinged his eyes. Tetsusaiga pulsed and he had to fight his youkai blood as it boiled just under the surface. His claws clenched convulsively around Tetsusaiga's hilt and he attacked, brutally slashing through the nearest demon's head.

The ogre didn't have a chance to scream as his head rolled from his body and came to rest near a tree, sightless eyes staring at the sky. The massive headless corpse teetered and fell trapping the other ogre. With a half mad smirk the hanyou sheathed his sword and bared his claws. He was on the trapped ogre before he could wiggle out from under his companion.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he snarled. The demon stilled.

"You dare give me orders, filthy half-breed." InuYasha's lips twisted into an unpleasant grin, baring his fangs.

"I swear ogres. You have gotta be the stupidest fuckers alive."

The ogre sneered and InuYasha drove his claws into his chest, ripping him apart. He fell dead as the blood dripped from his hand.

Fear like nothing he had ever known clenched his heart as he wiped his hands clean and ran over to Kagome.

Tentatively, he lifted her head and was relieved to find her breathing. She groaned when he moved her and slowly came back to consciousness.

"Did anybody get the number of that bus?" She croaked and shook her head. She instantly regretted it as pain spiked under her skull.

"Dammit, lie still stupid, you're hurt." She attempted to glare at the hanyou but that required focus and the jackhammer pounding in her brain wouldn't let her concentrate. She settled for gripping the sleeve of his fire rat robes tightly.

"Isamu?" He grunted and slowly eased her down.

"I'll check," he murmured and made his way over to the prone man. What he found surprised him. The ronin was still alive and he was staring at him.

"InuYasha…Chie…got to find…" he croaked. The hanyou pushed him back down when he tried to stand.

"She's fine. She's with Kaede. She's going to be fine, Isamu."

He had been fighting InuYasha, still trying to stand, but the half-demon's words finally registered. He gripped his robes in a vice grip.

"The village…in trouble. We have to…get to the village."

InuYasha looked from the man to Kagome and cursed. He could carry them both, but it was going to slow him down. Still, he knew he couldn't leave either of them especially since he could still smell ogres in the area, not that leaving Kagome was ever an option.

"Think you got the strength to hold on to my back?" Isamu seemed to consider the proposition solemnly before nodding and croaking.

"Yeah"

"I'll be right back," InuYasha muttered. He returned to Kagome and without asking swept her into his arms in a bridal carry and tucked her into his chest.

"InuYasha, what…"

"We need to get to the village and you're in no condition to walk. Neither is Isamu. He's going to have to ride on my back, which means I have to carry you. No whining."

Kagome usually wouldn't let him get away with that bossy tone but her head hurt too much for her to think. So she did the easiest thing she could think of, she snuggled against him.

InuYasha felt his awareness of her amplify and he growled low in his throat. _Dammit! _He thought.

He didn't want this, not now. Not when they had finally fallen into a comfortable routine together. He'd thought he'd buried those feelings he had for her years ago. He knew now, like he had known then, that he and she were an impossible dream, a fairytale, and everyone knew that fairytales didn't come true.

He'd tired once to believe in fairytales. He tried with Kikyo and everyone knew how that had ended. The undead miko was still around, although he didn't see her much now that Naraku, the bastard, was dead.

He tightened his hold on Kagome. Despite the limits he'd put on their relationship she was important to him. So important that he couldn't imagine being without her.

Not that he didn't have feelings for Kikyo, but he could honestly say that those feelings were regulated to the part of his heart that held his past. One thing for certain, there was no way he was going to allow her to drag him to hell.

He winced inwardly. When he'd told her she hadn't been happy about it, but after everything that had happened in the past four years he had found that he couldn't find the energy to be too upset over her reaction.

Simply put, he may still care for Kikyo, but he cared for Kagome more.

He still hoped to help Kikyo find peace one day, but it wasn't his top priority and it sure as hell wasn't something he was going to give up his life for.

Kagome snuggled closer and he gritted his teeth. She was trying to kill him. He scowled as he made his way over to Isamu and with the other man's help managed to secure him on his back. With one finally grunt and adjustment he took off running.

He only hoped they reached the village in time.


	11. Dissidence

"_**Something is rotten in the state of Demark"**_

_**William Shakespeare - Hamlet**_

When InuYasha arrived in the village carrying Isamu and Kagome he found, to his disgust, that they were too late. The demons had already come and gone and left horrific destruction in their wake. The only difference between now and the first time he had ever set foot on this mountain was the fact that most of the villagers were still alive.

_Nice job teaching them how to fight, Sango_ he thought, offering his praise to his absent friend.

"Hey it's InuYasha and Kagome and they have Isamu!" A young boy cried out. The next thing he knew Chie's best friend Benjiro, followed closely by his mother Riko, raced over to him. The boy hit his legs like a pouncing cat and he almost stumbled.

"Yasha did you find Chie? Is she all right? Isamu looks pretty bad, is he gonna die?"

InuYasha grunted.

"Chie's fine, she's with Kaede and no, Isamu isn't going to die. He's too tough for that."

"Benji let InuYasha go. He needs to get our friends to the convalescence hut so that we may treat their wounds."

InuYasha blushed slightly when he looked up and met Riko's eyes. Riko had been with them during the war. They had met her on the day they had passed what was left of her small farm. She had been badly injured, standing over her son protectively with a sturdy branch in her hands, trying to fight off two ogres.

InuYasha and Isamu had been scouting and had saved them, killing the ogres. Riko had promptly thanked them and fainted.

Isamu had carried her back to their camp color flushing his cheeks, for she was the most stunning woman either of them had ever seen. She was also, as it turned out, a healer and she had been indispensable to their small band.

InuYasha frowned and glanced down at the girl in his arms and his golden eyes met her chocolate ones, she smiled knowingly. He felt his heartbeat double and revised his previous thought. Riko was the second most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

"You all right to stand?" He whispered.

She smiled and reached up to caress his cheek.

"I'll be fine. Go ahead and put me down." He grunted and gently lowered her to her feet. Kagome groaned, wobbled a little, but managed to stay upright.

Ben immediately let InuYasha go and dived for Kagome and squealed, "Kagome!"

She groaned and caught him in a hug. InuYasha scowled and was about to tell the runt to get off her but Isamu moaned in pain. He scowled and helped his friend down from his back, supporting him so he remained upright. Riko reached them and immediately shouldered Isamu's weight.

"Tell me what happened." InuYasha's scowl deepened.

"Ogre demons were beating the shi-snot out of him," he amended quickly. Riko frowned as her emerald green eyes drifted over Isamu's handsome face. She felt the pull in her stomach she got whenever she looked at the ronin, but now was not the time for that particular ridiculous fancy.

"Let's get him to the convalescence hut. You too Kagome, that's a nasty bump. I want to take a look at it."

"Can you tell us what happened here, Riko?" Kagome asked.

"Demons attacked but thank Kami for Lady Sango and her training. The huts got the worst of it but we can rebuild those. Casualties were minimal, although I do have a few injured, but I know as you do that it could have been a great deal worse."

"What is this blasphemy! What is that…that filthy demon doing here!"

A man followed closely by a band of other men stepped into their path. InuYasha could feel the hatred coming from the mob and his fingers instinctively wrapped around Tetsusaiga. Kagome placed her hand over his and squeezed gently, warning him to stay his sword, before pulling away.

The other villagers who had been watching the procession wandered over to see what was happening.

Riko narrowed her eyes on the man in front of her. The ferret-like little man had been causing trouble for the village ever since he arrived and she had no patience for his nonsense right now.

"Stand aside, Tatsuo. Isamu is injured and I need to treat his wounds."

Tatsuo crossed his arms and glared.

"You are not taking that half-demon filth into the convalescence hut. How do you know he won't simply kill them all?"

Riko snorted in disgust. "InuYasha is our friend and you well know Tatsuo, more importantly he is Lady Sango friend. If she trusts him it should be good enough for the rest of you. Now stop this foolishness and stand aside."

He bristled. "How dare you speak to me in such a fashion woman! What unladylike liberties our unsuitable leader has been teaching you. You should show deference to a man, especially one such as I who was the advisor to kings!"

Kagome stalked up to stand next to Riko, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"How can you talk about Sango like that? This is her village! Her people are buried over that hill. I should know, I helped InuYasha and Miroku bury them. You've got some nerve buster standing there and bad mouthing Sango when she's not even here to defend herself."

She growled and turned to the villagers who were murmuring amongst themselves.

"And you! How can all of you stand there and not defend her! Most of you were there during the war, you saw her. She's brave and loyal and kind and has never asked for anything in return from you. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

A majority of the villagers did look ashamed and it annoyed Tatsuo to no end.

"Fools, why would you listen to this…this harlot? Why, look how she is dressed! It's scandalous and besides she travels with the hanyou. Do you not see how he looks at her and she; him. He is clearly fornicating with her. Disgusting."

Kagome gasped and InuYasha growled as he pulled his fang from its sheath. The massive sword transformed and he gripped the hilt two handed, pointing it at the odious little man.

"You…take…that…back!" he roared. The men around Tatsuo drew their swords and surrounded him. He smirked and Kagome grabbed hold of InuYasha's forearm. She could feel the tense muscles quivering underneath her fingertips.

"InuYasha please, he's not worth it. Put your sword away." He glanced at her and back to Tatsuo.

"See how he defends his whore! I tell you truly they are mated, just look how they stand together. It is sickening."

Kagome let her anger override her better judgment and she spat.

"You're an idiot and what if me and InuYasha were mated! What would be the big deal? I've been in lo…"

Suddenly realizing what she'd almost admitted she clamped her hands over her traitorous mouth and flushed bright red. InuYasha looked as if someone had kicked him in the gut, repeatedly.

Murmurs started rising among the crowd and Tatsuo crowed in triumph. "We must kill the demon, he has bewitched her!"

One of Tatsuo's men roared and attacked. InuYasha grabbed Kagome and made sure she was close to him, readying himself, but before he could clash swords with his attacker Isamu came between them and caught the blow on his katana.

He swayed, grunted, and pushed the man back with enough force to send him sprawling. He felt his vision waver and he staggered. Had not Riko run forward and caught him he would have hit the ground.

Tears were in her eyes as she admonished him. "Fool, are you trying to get yourself killed?" He smirked and croaked.

"Almost worth dying to end up in your arms." Riko flushed. Isamu grinned wider and groaned, collecting his strength so he could speak.

"Hear me people. You know me and respect me. The hanyou is my friend, he saved my life many times on the field of battle and he has done so again today. Had he not come when he had and defeated the demons that carried me away, I would be dead.

Lady Sango calls him friend and defends him as if he were her brother. So I too will call him brother and he will always find welcome in my home. Tatsuo fills your minds with poison which is why you must remember. It was Lady Sango and her friends who defended you, who gave you sanctuary. It was they who finally defeated Kijo. Do not let this viper sully your minds."

The murmurs increased but slowly, one by one, many of the villagers started to file away until only Tatsuo and his men remained.

InuYasha glared at them and snarled. "Leave." The men scrambled back and Tatsuo sputtered; his face purple with rage.

"This will be on your head, Isamu."

He spun on his heels and stalked away.

The ronin suddenly groaned, his eyes rolled back in his head, and his body went limp. Riko almost went down under his weight and would have if InuYasha had not sheathed his sword and grabbed him.

Worried, she smoothed the former samurai's hair out of his eyes. "Come, we must tend to his wounds."

They hurried off towards the hut, but not before InuYasha pinned Kagome with an inscrutable look. She met his gaze unflinching and he was forced to turn away when Riko started moving away. Kagome lingered for a moment longer.

She shivered, but it had nothing to do with the chill in the air. She watched InuYasha until he was out of sight and cursed herself a fool. Kami, she'd almost blurted out that she...she didn't want to think about it. Instead, she glanced in the direction that Tatsuo and his minions had scurried off and hugged herself.

She'd been around humans before who had hated InuYasha simply because he was what he was, but she never thought they would encounter such prejudice in Sango's village. She scowled; he was such a loathsome man.

_So why are the villagers listening to him? _She wondered and bit her lip. She hated this feeling in the air, especially in a place she considered her second home.

She sighed. She missed Sango. If the slayer were here, she had the feeling that Tatsuo would never have challenged her friends so openly.

Kagome shivered. She had an apprehensive feeling that things were far, far from over.


	12. Patterns

"_**I know why the heart gets lonely -- Every time you give your love away -- And if you think that you are only -- A shadow in the wind -- Rolling round but when you go and let somebody in -- They might fade away."**_

_**Sheryl Crow – I Know Why**_

Dawn came much too early, but with it a new atmosphere had descended over the small campsite. Sango and Miroku fell into an easy silence as they broke camp and the monk felt a peace he hadn't felt in a long, long time.

It lasted until he caught sight of Sango languidly stretching the kinks out of her back and then watched her bend to retrieve her bedroll. Miroku's hand twitched and his eyes followed the smooth curve of her bottom, accented by her kimono.

Old habits reared and without thinking he reached out and stroked his hand over her ass. Sango froze and whirled.

The responding slap threw Miroku off balance and he fell on his backside. His mischievous gaze met Sango's narrowed, angry eyes and he couldn't help himself, he laughed. Sango watched him for a moment, uncomprehending as he rolled on the ground, laughing so hard tears came to his eyes and suddenly she felt her own lips twitch into a smile. She giggled, placing her hands over her mouth and suddenly she was laughing as well.

Sango sunk to her knees and wrapped her arms around her midsection fighting to breath between guffaws. They would both stop for a moment and then they would catch each others eye and be thrown into galls of laughter again.

It was a good ten minutes before either of them could speak.

"I thought you told me you were no longer the man I used to slap silly?" She said with a grin. He grinned back and shrugged elegantly.

"So, I lied. My dear Sango, you will always be able to slap me silly and I will most likely be forever powerless in the face of your ire."

She shook her head, stood, and offered him a hand up; he took it, his mischievous grin still firmly in place. She pulled and he regained his feet, not letting go of her hand. She looked up to find him unbearable close and her heart started to thump wildly in her chest.

_Gods, but he is handsome, _she thought. His smile slipped and he groaned her name just before his lips descended on hers.

She whimpered when his tongue parted her soft folds and ran gently along the seam of her full lower lip. He murmured something unintelligible and his arm slipped seductively around her slim waist so he could pull her closer. He plunged his tongue into her mouth, testing and tasting, sucking lightly on hers and letting go, only to slide languidly against the length.

Sango felt her body flare as her nipples became painful hard and a slow steady throb clenched her womb. Her fingers twisted convulsively in the fabric of his purple robes, pulling him closer still.

When one hand moved slowly up her abdomen to brush the underside of her right breast she gasped. He pulled away to breathe and his eyes half lidded were storm tossed as he gazed at her. Miroku took a steadying breath and rested his forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry, Sango. I never seem to have any self control when it comes to you no matter how hard I try."

Sango met his eyes squarely watching the swirl of emotion dance in their depths. Regret and longing where the most identifiable, emotions she was certain were mirrored in her own. She sighed and moved her hand to caress the red mark she had left on his cheek.

"Miroku, why do we always seem hurt each other?" He sighed and enfolded her into his arms. Her head came to rest on his chest; his chin atop her silken crown.

"I don't know, taijiya. I've no easy answer for you. I can only tell you that their will never be another for me, as long as I remain on this mortal coil, and I wish with all my heart that things were different."

She sighed. "You're never going to tell me why you left, are you."

Miroku stiffened and tried to pull away but her arms tightened around him.

"No…please…I-I want you to…" She was going to say that she wanted, no needed him to stay, but her pride would not let her beg. He seemed to understand because he relaxed against her.

Sango closed her eyes. So many turbulent emotions surged through her and she knew, as sure as she breathed, that she was not going to be able to hang on to him forever. She had decided that she wanted whatever he could give her for as long as they had, pride be damned.

Her heart; well she would worry about that later.

* * *

Lord Toyotomi scowled at the image of the beautiful woman and the monk as he claimed her mouth in a parody of lovemaking. He felt his own cock tighten and in a fit of ire he kicked over the jade basin and sent it skidding across the hardwood floor. 

It hit hard but luckily, didn't shatter. A darkly amuse voice sounded in the chamber.

"That was childish."

The petulant Lord scowled again and stalked over to his futon.

A woman lay there, naked. She was young, not a day past fourteen winters, and she stared at the ceiling with wide unseeing eyes, moaning every so often.

Lord Toyotomi's scowl turned into a lustful grin as the drug he had given her took affect. She moaned again and brought her hands up to caress her naked breast, kneading and pinching the tight nipples between her fingers.

Toyotomi's grin faded and he looked away.

"You promised me the taijiya and yet as they journey here, she and that blasted monk grow closer. I want to taste her sweet purity before she fulfills her purpose. I want to drink her sweet virgin blood as it coats her thighs after I have driven into her. I will taste it."

The amused voice was back.

"Childish…after all this time. Why does it matter if you take her chastity? You can not keep her." Suddenly the voice grew cold. "Do not think of betraying me Lord Toyotomi. The consequences would be…unpleasant."

A shiver traveled down the shogun's spine and he scowled. He hated, after all these years, that the bastard could still frighten him.

"I do not wish to keep the taijiya, but I will have her before she is sacrificed. She is…stunning and so deliciously strong. I will have her…and she will break for me."

Suddenly a loud moan brought his attention to the woman withering on the bed. She had her hand between her sticky thighs and tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Hurts..." she murmured. Lord Toyotomi grinned and stroked his cock as he watched her desperately seek her release. To know that he had heard this young servant girl confess to another servant that she had never touched herself like this before was an incredible turn on.

The drug he had given her when he had lured her to his chamber was one of his own design. A few sips and it not only render the subject insensible, it heighten sexual desire to the point where it was painful.

Sometimes he would administer the drug and watch the girls cry in frustration as the pain grew and no relief came and sometimes, like today, he would decide to be benevolent and take the pain away.

Today his lust and anger bubbled just beneath the surface and he crawled over the girl. He roughly removed her hand spread her legs and thrust his harden cock into her. She cried out in pain and thrashed as blood trickled down her thighs.

"No…no…" she moaned. He growled, pinched her nipple tightly, and started to move hard and fast, punishing her.

He knew that the pain she was in must be immense and the thought simply drove him to push harder. As he fucked her he imagined that she was the taijiya and when his release came he arched his back, driving the girl into the futon with its power.

The girl was still mumbling and crying beneath him when he crawled off of her and left her without a backwards glance.

His guests were drawing closer and he had preparations to make.

* * *

InuYasha watched Kagome out of the corner of his eye as she assisted Riko in tending the wounded. 

His scrutiny unnerved her and although she gave no outward sign, he could tell by her scent. Plus, she was ignoring him, something she only did when she was nervous…or annoyed with him.

He watched her with hooded golden eyes, predatory eyes. He still couldn't believe what she has almost admitted to Tatsuo this afternoon and he half wondered if he'd imagined it. InuYasha sniffed the air and caught her unique scent.

She really had no idea how good she smelled to him or how he her scent was permanently entrenched in his senses. He knew hers better than he knew his own, better than he knew Kikyo's, better even, than his own mother's.

Four short years he had known her and she had done what none could claim, she had become a part of his soul.

He could tell her moods simply by the changes in her scent and right now her scent was telling him that her almost confession really had been the unvarnished truth.

Kami, she was in love with him.

He frowned and inadvertently bared a fang. One of the patients yelped and scurried away from him, but he paid him no mind. All his focus was attuned to Kagome and the revelation that caused his gut to clench in tight convulsions.

She couldn't love him, not Kagome. She was too…good, much too good for the likes of him. But Kami, how she wished she wasn't.

He scowled, hadn't Kikyo taught him his lesson? Even she, with all her compassion, could not bind herself to him while he remained a hanyou.

What made Kagome any different? His scowl deepened and he heard Kagome sigh; a moment later she was standing in front of him tugging on his hand.

"Come on, InuYasha. Let's get some air."

He allowed her to lead him outside and was surprised when she laced her fingers with his instead of letting go. They didn't speak as she led him to the outskirts of the village towards the orchard that bordered the lonely graves of Sango's fallen people.

She stopped beneath a blooming cherry tree and pulled him down to sit with her by the trunk.

"You want to tell me what's bothering you?" She asked, not unkindly. He scoffed.

"Keh, I'm fine." She sighed.

"InuYasha let's not do this tonight, okay? You were scowling like you wanted to gut someone in there. If it's about what Tatsuo and those idiots said and did today, try not to let them get to you. Most of the people in the village know better and don't care if you're a hanyou. They know you're brave and loyal and a damn good man to have on their side when things go wrong. You can't let fools like Tatsuo get under your skin."

He fought to suppress his grin and looked away. He could always count on Kagome to protect him and the warm feeling he always got when she rushed to his defense filled his weary heart.

He took a deep breath and captured her eyes with his, trying to look deep into her soul.

"Actually I haven't thought about Tatsuo since him and those assholes walked away."

A furrow creased her brow and she gazed at him with puzzled eyes.

"Then what…" He cut her off.

"I've been thinking about what you said to Tatsuo." Kagome flushed red and pulled her hand out of his.

"Oh, you mean when I…"

"Yeah," he said. She fidgeted.

Silence descended as she searched for something, anything to say. She hadn't meant to tell him about her feelings, but now that they were out in the open she had to admit it didn't frighten her as much as she thought it would. Nineteen was a long ways away from fifteen, and maybe it was time to stop dancing around her hanyou and simply take a chance.

"I meant it," she said. So softly he wouldn't have heard her if he'd been human.

He shifted, nervous. "I don't know if…" She seemed to understand and took his hand again, joining their fingers.

"I know, don't worry about it right now."

He growled, low and she met his amber gaze, surprised.

"I don't deserve you. I never have." He then did something that took her completely by surprise. He kissed her.

Kagome's brain short circuited as he moved his lips over hers nipping the delicate skin of her lower lip and soothing it with his tongue. She gasped and he took advantage of her parted lips to plunge his tongue into her hot mouth, running the length across hers and sucking lightly on her lower lip before plunging back in.

She groaned and weaved her hands into the lapels of his hitoe and she felt his arms lock around her slim waist.

She moaned and pushed her tongue back against his, running the tip over his fangs only to shudder when he sucked lightly on her invading appendage. Kagome felt like her body was on fire and when his hands skimmed under her sweater and cupped her cloth covered breasts she arched into his touch.

"InuYasha," she groaned. He grunted and ran a trail of kisses down her jaw line and paused to suck lightly on the pulse point of her neck. She mewled and her hands slipped beneath his robes to rub lightly over his chest.

When her knee inadvertently brushed the growing bulge under his hakama he suddenly stilled and pulled away from her, breathing heavy. When she tried to pull him back to her he held her gently but firmly away from him. She frowned, confused.

"InuYasha?"

He closed his eyes, collected himself, and opened them.

"I'm sorry Kagome. I shouldn't have done that." She looked away and wrapped her arms around her torso, suddenly cold.

She didn't say anything for a moment and suddenly she laughed. It was full of derision. She shook her head and looked at him, sadness and anger in her gaze.

"I should have known."

He blinked. "Should have known what?"

"I should have known that you…never mind…it doesn't matter. I'm going back to help Riko." She stood up and in a moment of panic he grasped her hand, staying her. She sighed deeply and met his gaze.

"Wait Kagome…you don't understand." She frowned and gently but firmly, removed her hand from his.

"I get it InuYasha. In fact, I understand you better than you understand yourself. You want me, but you don't want to want me. Even after all this time you can't…." Her voice broke and she closed her eyes. Once she felt she wouldn't embarrass herself by bursting into tears she opened them. "Why can't you take what I'm offering you and be happy? Why can't you allow yourself too l-love me…the way I love you?"

"Kagome," he whimpered. She shook her head.

"No InuYasha…just no. I've been waiting for you…for too long. You need to make a decision or…"

He felt his ire spike and growled. He didn't like ultimatums.

"Or what, Kagome?" She smiled sadly.

"Or else you are going to lose me," she whispered and walked away. He watched her go until she disappeared into Riko's hut.

He stayed beneath the cherry tree unable to go back into the hut with her but unable to leave the village and run until his turbulent emotions subsided.

He wanted to love Kagome the way she wanted him to, the way she needed and the longer he sat there the colder he became.

He wanted to be the man the Kagome needed but he was afraid that what she wanted and what he could give her were worlds apart. He knew one thing though. She couldn't leave him. He couldn't allow her to leave him, because without her, nothing made sense.

Love her the way that she loved him, Kami that was almost laughable, because deep down, in places he didn't like to think about, he loved her with a fierceness that was frightening in its savageness.

No, loving her wasn't the problem. The problem was they he loved her too much and he was afraid. His love brought death. His mother and Kikyo had learned that the hard way.

His love brought death and he would let Kikyo drag him to hell before he damned Kagome to such a fate….even it if it meant losing her forever.


	13. Secrets

"_**Talking about love is like dancing about architecture"**_

_**Joan – Playing By Heart**_

Miroku smiled and his eyes drifted to the enticing sight of the soft globes of Sango's backside. His hand twitched and his mind drifted pleasantly back to this morning. Thank Kami some things never changed. He offered a prayer to the perfection of Sango's ass and fought the urge to curl his hand around it.

He was pretty sure she wouldn't be as forgiving a second time.

Sango, despite the relative camaraderie from this morning, had been surprisingly quiet for most of the day. His lustful smile turned to a frown as his gaze drifted from the temptation of her bottom, along the graceful curve of her back, to rest on her shoulder.

He watched the taijiya readjust her boomerang around her frame and wiggle it a bit as if it hurt. That was when he noticed the small spot of blood on her yukuta. He caught up with her and stopped her by placing his hand on her arm.

She turned questioning eyes on him.

"You're hurt, Sango," he admonished. She frowned in confusion, but understood when he ran his hand lightly over her shoulder blade. His gentle touch caused heat to lick in her belly and she stepped away.

"I-It's nothing houshi, an old wound."

Miroku's frown deepened and he pulled her kimono away from the flesh just enough to see for himself. Sango jumped and her reaction was instantaneous as her palm flew for his cheek.

"Hey watch it pervert!" He caught her wrist and narrowed his eyes.

"Sango, I was not being perverted…"

"For once," she grumbled. He continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"I was merely expressing concern." His mouth quirked into a mischievous grin.

"Now if the lady would prefer I do something perverted, I'm sure I can oblige."

She rolled her eyes and had to fight the urge to smile. It wouldn't do to encourage him and his hentai behavior.

His smile faded and this time his finger traced the unbroken flesh around the wound. The low heat became a throb and she suppressed her shiver.

"Why is this wound in the shape of the blade your brother wields?"

She wrenched her wrist out of his hand and pulled her clothing back into place. Agitated, she mumbled.

"It was a sparring accident."

She wouldn't look at him. She didn't want him to know about Kohaku and his…rages. They were her burden to bear and she did so without complaint.

Miroku was watching her with those all knowing eyes again and she glared back at him.

"Stop that." He blinked.

"Stop what?" She blew her bangs out of her eyes and averted her gaze.

"Stop looking at me like that." He cocked an eyebrow.

"And how am I looking at you taijiya?"

Her scowl deepened.

"They way you always do when you think I'm lying," she stated, flatly. He smirked.

"Sango, it is not my fault that you have no aptitude for deception. Besides, I know you are not lying to me; you are simply not telling me everything."

She huffed and glared. "Why should I have to? You've obviously got your secrets…why can't I have mine?"

He tilted his head and studied her. She was annoyed with him.

"My dear Sango, far be it from me to infer secrets out of you that you do not wish to share, but know that if you do wish to tell me…I am here to listen."

He had made it only two steps when Sango's weary sigh caressed his ears.

"Wait houshi." He turned, expectant, and she fell into step beside him.

She studied him. She'd always respected Miroku's opinion. He may be an incurable lech and a con man but he was also a Buddhist monk, educated, and with a well of power that was impressive for one so young.

Even without the wind tunnel he was a formidable man. She chewed her lip and caught his eyes following the motion out of the corner of her own. The deep indigo pools darkened, and she felt her breath catch in her throat as a blush crept up the back of her neck.

"I'm worried about Kohaku," she blurted suddenly. Mostly to suppress the sudden urge that had come over her to feel his lips moving over hers. He raised an eyebrow, but did not comment. She sighed.

"I don't know what to do about him anymore. I had thought…hoped that once he was free of Naraku he would be able to heal…maybe even be able to reclaim part of the boy he use to be…"

She hugged herself and whispered. "But he's not getting better."

Miroku frowned. "How so? You told me when we were still with Kaede that his nightmares were decreasing. Is that not a sign of healing?"

She looked away.

"He has these…rages, moments where he goes insane and lashes out at anyone who comes near him. I'm usually able to contain him and he never….remembers."

Sympathy filled the monk's eyes and he took her hand. Sango felt her blush deepen and prayed it had not reached her cheeks.

"Have you consulted Kaede?" She nodded.

"She has given me some herbs and remedies to calm him, but he still succumbs to the rage. I no longer know how to help him."

He was silent for a moment, assessing.

"Perhaps you simply cannot help him." Her eyes snapped to his, her brow furrowed in anger, and she parted her lips to deliver a scathing retort, but he hastily interrupted her.

"I do not mean it that way, taijiya. What I should have said, was that sometimes no matter how much you love someone, no matter how much you may wish to help, it is not with-in your power to heal them. Kohaku has suffered far more than, perhaps, either of us realizes, and only time can heal such a wound."

She felt her eyes mist and she looked away from him. She didn't want him to see her despair or rage at how unfair the whole situation was. She gritted her teeth in frustration.

"I don't know if we have the luxury of time. The jewel is almost complete and…"

She didn't have to explain. Miroku understood the significance. The shard in her brother's back was the only thing keeping him alive.

He frowned suddenly. When he'd seen Kohaku he'd noticed the boy had seemed older than the last time he'd encountered him.

A strange question occurred to him. If Kohaku truly was the walking dead why would he age? He looked at Sango thoughtfully. Perhaps his judgment was incorrect, after all he had been gone, and he was willing to admit that his recollections of the boy two years ago might not be as clear as he thought they were.

"Sango…is he ageing?"

Sango started. She was not stupid; she instantly realized why Miroku would ask such a question. If Kohaku has truly been dead, as Naraku had insinuated, then there was no way her brother could age.

The jewel shard may be keeping him from passing the rest of the way into the underworld but somehow, somewhere there must still be a spark of life inside him.

"He is…it's why I can't…"

He nodded and instinctively put his arm around her waist and pulled her close. She stiffened and tried to pull away, but he simply clutched her harder. She gave up and allowed herself the comfort of his warmth.

"Then there is hope Sango, and sometimes hope is all we have to hold on to."

She sighed. Hope…it was something she desperately wanted to cling to, but found in such short supply. Strangely though, nestled against Miroku's lean, muscular frame, she found that hope was something she was starting to believe in again.

She glanced up at his handsome profile from under lowered lashes.

Hope…it was something to think about.

* * *

The next few days had passed rather pleasantly between Sango and Miroku as they continued to journey south. They had conversed and Miroku had continued to regale her with tales about his travels, keeping her mind off of her brother and keeping her laughing most of the way. She was especially amused by the stories surrounding his time spent with the Portuguese and the priest, Father Manuel. 

She was smiling and he was struck suddenly by how light and carefree and breathtaking she appeared. Without thinking Miroku slipped into the tongue of his friend's countrymen.

"Você é tão bonita."

Sango's smile faded and she paused.

"You learned their language."

Miroku frowned. Yes, he had learned Portuguese and for some reason this seemed to distress her. She had grown thoughtful and all the mirth had drained out of her.

"Sango?"

She shook her head as if to clear it and smiled, but he noticed it did not reach her eyes.

He frowned. "This displeases you, taijiya. Why?"

She shook her head again, and hugged herself. He drew closer to her and touched her check with his left hand, running his thumb over her cheekbone. She sucked in a ragged breath.

"Please…tell me," he entreated. She pulled away from his touch and fiddled with Hiraikotsu, agitated.

"It's silly," she murmured. He frowned deeper.

"Nothing that upsets you could ever be silly in my eyes."

A beat passed and she sighed.

"You've done so much…out there…seen so many things. You've met many beautif…" she trailed off. "I can almost understand why you are so eager…to leave again."

Miroku frowned and opened his mouth to comment, when a scream broke the stillness of the air. They exchanged looks and took off running in the direction the scream had come from.

They reached the edge of a forest and out of the trees a young boy broke through the clearing, headed right for them. Behind him a small pack of lizard demons roared.

Sango freed Hiraikotsu and Miroku readied his staff as they charged the demons.

"Boy, get behind us!" Miroku yelled.

The child headed towards them. Miroku was the first to reach one of the demon. It roared and yellow teeth dove for the monk's throat. He raised his staff and focused his spiritual energy into the wood, infusing it. The teeth were repelled and the demon roared in pain.

"Hiraikotsu," echoed across the field. Miroku dove to the side as the huge boomerang flew through the air over his head. The demon snarled and twisted, turning a killing blow into a harmless graze. Sango growled and caught the boomerang by the straps when it returned to her in a graceful arc.

She skidded back, and rolled as another beast charged her. The demon was a massive with a choking aura. Its tail swept towards the slayer and she leapt into the air to avoid the swipe.

Miroku was busy with two of the demons, leaving the other three free to go after the slayer. The one that had tried to cleave her in two roared and dove; she rolled to the side again, careful to keep an eye on the two that were trying to flank her.

_This is not good. _She thought and brought Hiraikotsu around in an arch landing a blow on the demon's head. He clutched his injury in pain and fell back to regroup. Sango swiftly turned and caught the demon that had succeeded in flanking her with a precise blow.

The sharp edges of the boomerang slashed across its throat and bright red blood squirted out as it fell over dead. The remaining demons roared in grief and charged. She blocked the first swipe of deadly claw but she wasn't fast enough to block the second demon.

She felt her body lift and fly as the demon threw her across the field. She hit the ground with her back, felt the air whoosh out of her lungs, and felt her skull crack against a rock that had been partial buried beneath the earth. The slayer lay gasping; her vision blacking in and out.

"Sango!" Miroku screamed and cursed when the demons he'd been fighting started towards the fallen slayer.

She wasn't moving and he knew that if they reached her she was as good as dead. Cursing again he held out his right hand, vanished the glamour, and unbound his prayer beads.

"Wind Tunnel!" he screeched. The boy behind him squealed in terror and the demons roared in fear as the void in Miroku's right hand sucked them towards oblivion.

The lizards' massive claws dug into the earth, scrambling for purchase but it was to no avail. With a cry of despair they shrunk and disappeared into the void. Miroku was sweating as he bound his prayer beads around his hand and sunk to the ground on one knee.

His hand convulsed painfully and he fought to keep the bile down and his head clear.

He turned his head to meet the boy's eyes and the terrified child blinked once and ran.

Miroku sighed. So much for gratitude.

* * *

Sango felt her head swim and her vision blur as she lay on the ground gasping for breath. She struggled to lift her head, knowing that the demons would be on her at any moment, but unable to make her body respond with any sort of movement. 

She managed to find the energy to life her chin enough to see several blurry green shapes running towards her. The next thing she saw was an eerily familiar darkness engulf the charging demons and pull them backwards.

She blinked, dizziness assaulting her, and her heart pounding. She forced herself up enough to see what she was sure she couldn't possible be seeing. Purple and black swirled together as the demon was sucked into oblivion and she watched Miroku fall to his knees clutching his right hand.

Her last thought before darkness encompassed her was that her mind must be playing tricks on her.

* * *

When Sango awoke she was surprised to find herself tucked under the covers of a very comfortable futon. She was even more surprised to find Miroku sitting with his back to the door, his staff clutched against his chest, with his head resting at an uncomfortable angle, fast asleep. 

She pushed the covers off and winced at the movement. She frowned and looked down, noticing the blood stained bandages for the first time and wondering how long she'd been out of it. She glanced back at Miroku and took in the state of his robes. He looked as if he hadn't had a decent meal or a bath in a couple of days.

She sniffed and recoiled. The same could be said of herself.

Not wishing to disturb him she found her kimono and pulled it on but paused to study him. He looked really uncomfortable. Biting her lip she crossed the room and pulled the covers off of the futon she'd been sleeping on and gently maneuvered him until he was laying down. Knowing his robes would keep him warm enough she balled up the blankets and made a makeshift pillow to stick under his head.

She should have pulled away instantly but her fingers didn't seem to want to listen. She found them inadvertently lingering to brush the soft strands of his hair off his forehead. A tender smile crossed her lips and she bent down and dropped a soft kiss on his cheek, before blushing and pulling away.

She glanced at him one last time, sighed, and silently slipped out of the room. She paused outside, letting her eyes adjust to the change in light and found that they were in a small village. She shielded her eyes with her hand, went down the steps, and surveyed her surroundings.

"Well, it's good to see you out and about young lady. Gave us all quite a scare you did."

Sango started and turned and found herself face to face with an ancient old crone struggling with a pair of water buckets. She instinctively stepped forward and took her burden.

"Here, let me." The old woman smiled her thanks.

"My grandson was right, you really are a pretty one," she cackled and Sango felt an embarrassed flush stain her neck.

"Grandson?"

"Ay, the boy you and the monk saved from those demons."

Sango frowned and tried to recall what the woman was talking about. She remembered fighting the demons and she had a vague recollection of swirling darkness, but everything after that was a blur.

"That boy was your grandson?" The old woman cackled.

"That little bump on the noggin must've really scrambled your brain, dearie. Yes, the boy was my grandson, Kenji. I am the mistress of this inn. You may call me Sora, taijiya."

Sango smiled and adjusted the water buckets so that their weight wouldn't pull at her injuries.

"How long have I been out of it?" Sora glanced at her and motioned her towards the door at the eastern corner of the inn.

"Two days…and your devoted young man has not left your side, not even to eat. I have been taking him meals but he only picked at them. He was powerful worried about you, he was."

Sango felt heat pool in her gut at the innkeeper's words but it was nothing compared to the ache that spread through her bruised heart. She tried to tell herself that it was nothing; that Miroku would have been worried about her regardless, but she knew that was a lie. Had he not disproved, during these many days of travel, that her misconceptions had been false and quite possible ridiculous?

Yes, to all. Whatever his reasons for leaving, they were not those that she'd invented to sooth her emotions and ego.

She frowned, in fact she had the strangest feeling there was something she should remember. Something that answered the question she'd been worrying over for two long years.

Her frown deepened as she lost herself in her mind, searching for the elusive memory that would shed light on her perplexing conundrum, which is why Sora had to repeat herself three times before the taijiya acknowledge her.

She blinked. "I'm sorry, what was that?" Sora graced her with a toothless grin.

"I said, I can offer you a bath in the house in the back. My grandson has just replenished the wood and stoked the fire inside. The water should be nice and warm."

Sango thought that sounded heavenly and said so. Sora's smile grew wider.

"Come then, and while you are bathing I will launder your garments. I have finished your taijiya armor. Kenji will deliver it, along with your kimono when I am through."

"Please, you really don't have to go to all this trouble. I am sure I will find time to…" The innkeeper cut her off.

"Nonsense, it's the least I can do for you for saving my grandson. I plan on doing the same for the monk. Now, enjoy your bath."


	14. Convergence

**_"Whoever called it necking was a poor judge of anatomy."  
_**

**_ Groucho Marx _**

**_A/N: Okay, last warning, this is the (God, I can't believe I'm about to use this term) the lemon (Or at least it's one of them). Pretty much standard romance novel stuff. (Why, because I'm a girl and even I like a good romance now and again). It's rated M for a reason, if you get __squeamish_****_ about this kinda thing, I suggest you skip this chapter. Please and Thank you!_**

Sango sank into the warmth of the tub and sighed in pleasure as the hot water lapped at her strained muscles. She looked around the wooden enclosure and realized that Sora's inn must be very prosperous to have private baths.

The building was unlike any she'd seen before. The bathhouse was austere, separated into two rooms by a wall of hardwood and dominated by the swallow tub modeled after a natural hot spring.

High on the walls, where the ceiling joints fused with the top, there were a series of evenly spaced slits cut into the wood to allow natural light to filter in. Just beyond, she could see a thin column of smoke as it rose from the boilers and the sauna.

The smell of wood smoke and lavender scented bath oil combined, lulling her senses. The soothing smells and the heavenly feel of the water against her bruised and batter skin had her fighting to keep her eyelids open.

She must have dozed off for a few minutes because when she became aware of her surroundings once again she caught the blushing gaze of the ten year old who was bringing in drying cloths and her kimono.

"I apologize Lady; I did not wish to wake you."

Sango sunk down deeper into the tub and covered her breasts with her arms.

"You are Kenji, Sora's grandson?"

He flushed, swallowed, and looked away.

"Yes Lady."

Sango frowned; something was tickling her memory….something about this boy and Miroku.

"Kenji tell me. How did the houshi and I end up at your grandmother's inn?"

The boy flushed again and shuffled his feet. He wouldn't meet her gaze.

"Forgive me taijiya, but I was frightened when the houshi started sucking everything into his hand. I thought it was black magic and ran back to tell my grandmother. She sent some of the villagers to bring you both back. I'm s-sorry I ran away."

Her world shifted and she blinked stupidly.

Sango couldn't speak, couldn't move. She could only stare at the boy as if he were a spirit sent from the underworld to whisper hideous truths into her ear. He couldn't…he wouldn't. She took a deep breath, collected herself, and murmured.

"It's all right. I can understand w-why you were frightened. Miroku's wind tunnel is always frightening the first time anyone sees it."

He flushed again and looked away.

"I'll let you finish your bath," he mumbled and left. Sango didn't hear him.

She was too busy trying to make sense of her crumbling universe.

* * *

Miroku had awoken not long after Sango had left and had taken his own bath. When he returned to the room he was surprised to find her there, waiting for him. He paused. He couldn't identify the look in her cinnamon eyes. Wary, he entered and maintained a few feet of distance between them. 

"Sango?" He questioned. She said nothing. Instead he watched her as she closed the distance between them and take his right wrist in her hand. He instinctively flinched away from her, but she tightened her hold and forced him to display his hand, palm up.

Miroku met her gaze and swallowed. _Kami_, he thought, _she can't know. She can't_.

"Tell me monk. What would happen if I were to rest my palm against yours? Would I feel smooth, unblemished skin?"

He felt beads of sweat well and slide down the back of his neck, but he would be damned if he would let her know how nervous he suddenly was. He forced a lecherous smile.

"My dear Sango, you are welcome to rub any part of your luscious body against mine."

She scowled and tightened her grip on his wrist. He fought not to wince.

"Miroku, if I run my hand over yours will I feel skin or prayer beads?"

His mask descended and he regarded her with unfathomable eyes. She felt tears sting hers.

Minutes passed and neither moved. Unable to stand it any longer she cursed and said.

"Dammit monk, tell me!" He didn't miss the break in her voice.

Miroku looked away unable to meet her accusing glare. Something broke in his soul and the glamour that rendered his still cursed hand invisible shimmered and faded. Sango looked down and tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Sango," he whispered. She shook her head, her body trembling.

Minutes passed and she refused to speak and Miroku felt the damning silence condemn him.

"W-Why Miroku? W-Why d-didn't you tell me? Tell us?"

He swallowed passed his suddenly dry throat.

"You know why, taijiya."

She closed her eyes and shook her head, denial clenching her heart.

"How could you keep something like this from me? You should have known that I…"

He narrowed his indigo gaze and cut her off, anger coloring his words.

"You would have done something foolish and come with me. I could not allow such a thing then and I will not allow it now. This changes nothing."

Sango felt her own anger spike.

"You do not get to dictate to me what I can or cannot do, monk!"

Miroku wrenched out of her grasp and grabbed her shoulders.

"Yes dammit, I do. In this I do. I would not endanger your life then and I will not do so now. When this is over I will leave, because it is the only way I know to keep you safe. It's the only way to keep you alive. The wind tunnel will not take you Sango. I have sworn it on my life."

She stared at him, shock, anger, pain swirling in her cinnamon depths. She'd known, as soon as she realized the wind tunnel had not closed, she'd known he'd left to protect her, and she knew he'd do it again.

Her heart broke all over again, but this time she wasn't sure she'd be able to glue the pieces back together. Sango looked into Miroku's soul deep eyes and promptly felt herself fall. She felt like she was on the edge of a yawning precipice, trapped between her demons and a fatal drop.

She stepped off the cliff.

Miroku's body stiffened when he felt her lips move against his and when she grasped his robes and forced her tongue passed his lips he groaned. His arms immediately locked around her waist and pulled her against his body. He made a low, incomprehensible sound as he took control of the kiss, his tongue sweeping along hers as he sucked lightly on her lower lip.

She gasped and broke away only to dive back in for another kiss. He groaned again and his hands stroked the small of her back while his tongue massaged hers gently. She moaned and her hand dropped to the tie the held his robes in place. She started tugging and Miroku immediately stepped back and captured her wrists.

She growled, frustrated, and tried to free herself, but he simply held her tighter.

"What is this Sango?" She blushed and looked away.

"What do you think it is Miroku…I w-want to…I w-want us to…Kami." She gathered her courage and met his eyes. "Make love to me."

He vehemently shook his head. "Sango no, you don't want…" She scowled at and cut him off.

"Miroku, I do want. I want very much." He shook his head again.

"Taijiya please, it won't change anything…I can't…" She stepped forward and silenced him with a kiss. He moaned when her velvet tongue parted his lips and teased his before pulling away.

"For once in my life houshi, I don't care about the consequences. I've spent far too much time never allowing myself to take the things that I want. I don't care that you're…leaving again. I want you…I need to feel you inside me. Please Miroku."

He closed his eyes. Miroku had never considered himself a weak man, but he'd always been powerless when it came to his beautiful taijiya. She could reduce him to a simpering mass of jelly with a look, and he knew he was not strong enough to resist the lure of her luscious body, not when she was offering him the very thing he'd fantasized about since they'd first met.

He did, however, possess some scruples, and he did not want to take advantage of her. He opened his eyes.

"Sango," he whispered. "I don't want to hurt you."

She smirked and stepped into his body heat.

"Too late," she whispered and kissed him again. He grunted, powerless, and pulled her against him. She gasped and moaned as his skillful tongue devoured her.

Miroku's hands rested lightly on her hips and they started a slow trek upward, over her flat stomach, passed her ribcage. When he cupped her well formed breasts she keened, and when he slipped his hands inside her kimono and ran his thumbs over her hardened nipples she panted.

Miroku broke away from her to trail a line of kisses down her jaw and over the graceful column of her neck. He paused and pushed her kimono off her shoulders, revealing her naked breasts to his hot gaze.

"So beautiful," he murmured and Sango promptly lost all coherent thought when he sucked a distended tip into his mouth. Liquid heat shot into her groin and she felt moisture coat her thighs. She rubbed them together unconsciously to try and alleviate the pressure, but couldn't find any relief.

When Miroku sucked and flicked his tongue against her sensitive bud she gasped his name. He would have smirked in satisfaction if his mouth hadn't been full.

He pulled his lips away with a little pop and promptly moved to her other breast.

"Miroku," she whimpered and fisted her hands in his dark hair. Without loosing contact with her skin Miroku walked her back and tumbled with her onto the futon. He released her breast and she mewled in disappointment before sucking in a startled breath. Miroku had yanked her kimono down and off her, leaving her bare to his passion drugged eyes.

Self conscious she tried to cover herself, but he caught her wrists and trapped her gaze with his.

"No taijiya, never cover yourself. You are breathtaking." She flushed and tried to pull her wrists free.

"I-I'm not. I'm too strong…too scared. Not feminine at all." Miroku smirked and gently cupped her breasts.

"Believe me Sango, you are very feminine." He ran his thumbs around the rose tipped areoles and she instinctively arched against him. He captured her lips again, plunging his tongue inside, sweeping around her hot mouth, and pulled away.

"I have traveled the world and I have never found your equal. You are the most beautiful woman in the world to me and your scars," he bent to kiss one, "they are part of what makes you beautiful. Without them you would not be the woman you are. You would be…less…and that would be tragic. Você é bonita, e eu te amo."

Sango parted her lips to ask what that meant, but his tongue stifled her words and she promptly lost her train of thought. Miroku pulled away from her and trialed a line of feathery kisses down her chin, passed her throat, between the valley of her breast, over her abdomen, and lower.

She lifted her head to look at him when he stopped between her thighs. She frowned, confused and he grinned lavciously.

"Miroku what are you…Kami!" She screamed. Miroku had dipped his head between her thighs and ran his tongue over her engorged clit. When he did it again she gripped the mattress, panting. He wasted no time parting her soft folds and plunging his tongue deep inside her rapidly dampening sex. When he grasped her clit between his teeth and sucked, she arched off the futon.

"K-Kami…feels so…O-Oh gods. P-Please Miroku…it's too…"

He plunged two fingers into her, penetrating, and started humming around her bud. She cried out and when he starting pumping those skilful digits in and out of her she felt the rising heat build to a crescendo.

Sango closed her eyes tightly and bucked her hips, seeking…something. She had never felt anything like this and she knew she needed him to do something or else the pressure between her thighs would crush her. She mewled when his tongue flicked over the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs again and his fingers started pumping faster.

When he took the flesh between his lips and sucked she screamed. Waves of release crashed over her and she saw white lights flash behind her eyes. He kept sucking her, prolonging her orgasm, before crawling up her body and capturing her in a kiss.

She moaned into his mouth when she tasted herself on his tongue. He pulled away and smirked.

"Liked that did you." She narrowed her eyes and blushed deep crimson. She didn't like the self satisfied smile twisting his lips, and she was a little embarrassed at how fast she had come apart under the ministrations of his tongue and fingers.

"It was all right."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Well maybe I should do it again. Practice makes perfect." Her eyes went wide when his head started to dip down and she caught him before he could start running his tongue down her body again.

"Houshi stop!" He complied and met her gaze languidly. She growled.

"Fine, you lecherous hentai, it was… (fantastic, explosive, wonderful her mind supplied)…good."

He cocked an eyebrow.

"Hmmm, only good? I'm sure I can do better than good." He dipped his head again and captured her nipple between his teeth, sucking. She moaned and arched against him.

"Oh Kami, fine. You made me feel like I died and was resurrected," she panted. He pulled away and smirked.

"Good," he said and would have kissed her again, but she pushed at him and tugged at his robes.

"You're overdressed," she whispered. He pulled away from her and helped her take off his robes. She got them as low as his hips before stopping. Her eyes widened at the sight before her and she unconsciously reached out and rubbed her hands over his chest.

At the touch of her slim fingers on his flesh he groaned. He'd been waiting for years for Sango to touch him in this manner and he felt his already hardened cock, throb.

When her small hands ran over his abdomen and pushed at his robes he obliged by shifting so she could push them down and off his hips. His erection sprung free and Sango paused and swallowed.

She'd seen a man's sex before. She was a demon slayer and most of her comrades had been male. She'd also lived in an all male household until her father's death. She'd even caught a glimpse a time or two of InuYasha and Miroku bathing, but she'd never seen one this close before.

She worried her lip. He was large and she wondered briefly how he was going to fit.

Fascinated, Sango touched him with the tip of her index finger and ran it lightly from base to engorged tip. Miroku hissed. Startled, she met his eyes.

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" He smiled and shook his head.

"No Sango…it didn't hurt." A slow smile turned her lips. Feeling bolder now she lightly wrapped her fingers around his shaft and stroked. His eyes rolled back into his head and he moaned.

"Sango," he murmured. The moisture between her thighs grew thicker. Slowly she stroked him again, starting a steady, languid rhythm. Miroku's hips jerked against her hand.

She watched him, enthralled.

"D-Does it feel g-good?" She asked, her voice tentative. Miroku grunted and nodded slowly.

"Kami yes, but you must stop." She blinked in surprise.

"Why?" Her hand squeezed a little tighter on the tip and he felt his sex contract. He hissed in pleasure and caught his breath.

"Because if you don't, this won't last much longer."

He captured her wrist, pulled her hand away, and kicked his robes off the edge of the futon. He pushed Sango back and laid his naked body over her, her breast rubbing luxuriously against his chest.

"Turn over on you stomach," he murmured. Nervous, she complied. He groaned.

He could now see the luscious curve of her ass and his hands twitched. Sensuously he gripped the tight globes and ran his hands back and forth over the curve. He smiled. It was like dying and going to heaven.

Sango's breath hitched and she arched against him when she felt his hands on her. She flushed red. She had always secretly loved the feel of his hand rubbing over her backside. It was one of the reasons she'd hit him so hard for doing it, but now having his hands on her didn't feel shameful, it felt glorious.

He squeezed the ripest part of one globe and she gasped. When she felt his mouth lavish a wet kiss against her skin she groaned.

"Miroku, I need…" He kissed her other cheek.

"What do you need, tiajiya?"

She moaned. "I need you inside…please." He needed no further encouragement. He rocked back on his knees and lifted her so her back was flush against his chest.

"Miroku?" She questioned. She didn't have to wait long for the answer. He wrapped one arm around her waist, holding her in position, and used his free hand to maneuver the tip of his sex to her wet passage. She gasped when she felt the tip run along her lips.

He held her tight and whispered.

"This is going to hurt for a moment." She nodded and gritted her teeth.

"Do it fast." He nodded and impaled her on his throbbing member with one hard thrust. Sango yelped and tears stung her cinnamon eyes.

Miroku held her against him, very still, and rained gently kisses over her bare shoulder and the pulse point at her neck. She shifted and rode out the pain. Blood trickled down her thighs but she barely notice, she was too busy reveling in the fact that Miroku was intimately joined with her.

Then he moved and her world tilted. Sango's moan mingled with his as he used his leverage to drive her down on him while he drove up and into her. The pain was fading now and in its place the delicious building pressure from before was filling her. She bit her lip.

Miroku knew that at this moment he could die right now and be deliriously happy. He glanced down and watched her ass rub against his abdomen while he slid in and out of her. She felt amazing, her inner walls gripping him so tightly he thought he would die.

He used his free had to caress her bobbing breasts and pinched the nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She mewled in delight.

"Sango," he panted moving in and out, in and out, moving faster, driving her higher. She mumbled something incoherent and he felt his mind short circuit. He knew he was close and he really wanted to make her come before he did.

His hand moved swiftly from her breast and probed the apex of her thighs until he found the engorged nub. He furiously rubbed her clit and Sango screamed.

"Oh gods! Miroku!"

Her head flew back, her back arched, and he felt her inner walls tighten over his member. Still pounding into her he thrust one last time and felt his sex tighten. He released himself deep inside her and they collapsed together on the futon.

Sango felt boneless and she was sure she would never be able to move again, not that she wanted to. Miroku was spooned against her back, his softening manhood still inside her, and she knew that she'd never felt more complete in her entire life than she did at this moment.

She almost whimpered when he pulled out of her, but soon found herself in his arms, her head resting on his rapidly rising and falling chest.

"Kami," he whispered and she giggled. She felt sticky and sweaty and utterly content.

Miroku tightened his hold on her and she snuggled against him. A comfortable silence descended.

"Miroku?" Sango asked. He glanced down at her and saw her watching him.

"Yes?"

She bit her lip, nervous. "Does it always feel…like that? Cause if so I can understand why you…you know."

She looked away and Miroku frowned. He grasped her chin and tilted her head up, forcing her gaze to his.

"Taijiya, I can honestly say that I have never experienced anything like what I have just experienced with you in all my days. You are simply beyond compare and if I could give you the lifetime that you deserve, I would do so in the space of a heartbeat."

Sango felt tears prick her eyes and she looked away. Miroku held her tighter and rubbed his hands up and down her spine. She shifted self-consciously when he ran them over her scar, but he simply glared at her sternly and continued to caress her.

Eventually she drifted off to sleep but Miroku could not find the same peace. He looked down at the woman he loved more than life and cursed the gods.

It wasn't fair. He didn't want to leave her. He glared at his hand and felt it twitch and pulled Sango closer.

_Not yet, you fucking bastard. You don't get to take me yet_, he thought.

He followed her a few moments later, into an uneasy slumber.


	15. Hidden Agendas

"_**But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."**_

_**Aldous Huxley – Brave New World**_

The crashes and yells had died with the waning torch light and the servants exchanged fearful glances. Someone would have to check on the master and no one wanted to be the one to do so. Michi looked at around at the faces of the older men and knew that they were going to send him in. He bit his lip.

He was just a kitchen boy, and he knew that going into the master's chambers unannounced would get him whipped. His only hope was that perhaps Lord Toyotomi would be unconscious or sleeping.

His worst fear was confirmed when a burly guardsman grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pushed him towards the door. He yelped and stumbled.

"Oi whelp, go see to the master or I'll have you flogged."

Michi almost told the guard that if he really wanted to know so badly, he should go check on the master himself, but held his tongue. The guard must have read the insolence in his eyes because he put his sandal to the boy's backside and pushed him through the door.

Michi hit the floor in front door, biting down to keep from crying out in pain.

"Insolent whelp, now go!"

The boy wiped the blood off his chin and slowly slide the door open. What he saw there made him blink in dismay.

The room was a wreck. Linens were shredded, vases were shattered, and furniture was busted into jagged blocks of wood. He jumped when he heard his Lord's voice and promptly hid behind the only thing that remained in tact, the low nightstand next to his master's futon.

From his vantage point he could see his Lord waving his hands widely, his face apoplectic with rage. He could hear him ranting like a lunatic to no one and his fearful thought was that he'd gone mad, but then a disembodied voice answered.

"Stop this foolishness. You knew that it would happen sooner or later, it's why they are perfect for the ceremony. Just because the monk took your plaything doesn't mean you should start whining like a little child."

"She was mine!" He snarled. The voice grew cold.

"She was never yours. You and your sick, twisted, sexual lusts. If you don't find some control soon I may decide I have no further need of you. You need to remember where your gifts come from."

Toyotomi scowled but he could not stop the fear from seizing his heart. The very small part of him that was still human whimpered.

Petulantly he said. "But I was the one who should have taken her virginity. Me, not that monk."

The voice answered, disgusted. "I grow weary of this. Go and find another servant girl or better yet a villager to pound, but then come back, for we need to finish preparing the ceremony. The hunter's moon is almost upon us."

Toyotomi frowned. "Everything will be ready. I have as much at stake as you do. And after Mari there is no one amongst the staff that pleases me, and now she is useless to me."

Michi almost gasped when he heard that name and quickly clamped his hands over his mouth to stifle any sound. He couldn't believe it. His sister had vanished and now it seemed his worst suspicions were confirmed. She had become one of the Lord's women.

_Oh sister, _he thought in despair. _Why? How?_

The voice came back, sounding highly amused.

"Why do you grumble so? When you gave me your seed in the beginning you had no trouble with the bargain and now you whine? I thought you found children useless."

Toyotomi kicked a piece of broken chair. "They are, but so is having to give up my toys right when I've finally trained them to do all that I want. Once your spawn takes residence I can no longer play with them."

The voice said something else, but Michi could listen to no more. His fists clenched white and he silently made his way out the door. The guard that had sent him in tried to cuff him on the ear, but he ducked. The man's fist only caught air.

"Guttersnipe," he growled. Michi danced away from him.

"Lord Toyotomi is well," he muttered and made a break for it. Angry shouts followed him, but he paid them no attention. He had a destination in mind and he would need all his knowledge of the castle's hidden passages to get there.

His sister needed him.

* * *

InuYasha watched Kagome while she played with the village children and felt his heart clench in his chest.

_Kami, she's beautiful_, he thought. Feeling his eyes on her she looked over her shoulder and met his gaze. She smiled softly and he looked away, guilt suffusing him. Her smile faded and she sighed.

With a growl he stalked across the village heading for the training arena. Some of the villagers greeted him and he grunted in reply, but most of them avoided him. Some even went so far as to grab their children and hurry away. He wanted to snarl at them that he didn't hurt kids, but it would do no good. Tatsuo's poison was unfortunately worming its way into them and robbing the villagers of what little good sense they had.

He scowled. Sango and the damn houshi had better get their asses back here or Sango was going to lose her village to that idiot. His mood was rapidly turning blacker and his scowl deepened when he found Isamu standing in the middle of the practice arena swinging a katana while sweat poured off his bare torso.

Riko was standing near him glaring at him, arms akimbo. She spied InuYasha and she spat.

"InuYasha tell your friend he is a fool and that I refuse to bind his wounds if he breaks them open again."

InuYasha fought the urge to smirk. Riko looked a great deal like Kagome when she was annoyed with him.

"Isamu what the hell are you doing." The former samurai glared at the hanyou.

"Training," he hissed. InuYasha crossed his arms.

"Keh, looks more like your trying to bleed to death. I can smell the blood from here."

Riko gasped and Isamu ignored him.

"I told you, you stubborn imbecile! You are not well enough to be out here training."

He acted as if he hadn't heard her and continued going through his kendo exercises.

Huffing in frustration the healer crossed her arms and stepped in front of the samurai. Isamu cursed and pulled the sword stroke just in time to avoid stabbing her. His momentum caused him to overcorrect and he stumbled into Riko, driving them both to the ground. He looked up, his eyes caught hers, and he sucked in a ragged breath. He'd landed on top of her and his body was pressed against hers, groin to breast.

She glared at him, her green eyes shooting sparks, and he couldn't help but notice the soft give of her body underneath his or how inviting her full lips looked.

Shaking off his lustful thoughts he narrowed his gaze.

"You little fool. You never step in front of a samurai while he is training. I could have stabbed you."

Her chin lifted defiantly. "I'm the fool? I'm not the one out in the hot sun swinging a rusty piece of steel and slowly bleeding to death."

"Woman, you try my patience," he growled. Her glare sharpened.

"Then we are even, baka."

Isamu felt his ire spike, but when she started wiggling beneath him to dislodge his weight his anger gave way to a sharp stab of pure lust. When her breasts rubbed back and forth against his chest he hissed.

"Dammit Riko, keep still."

She was about to spat something scathing back until she noticed the hot look burning his eyes. She froze and swallowed. She suddenly realized that she was intimately pressed against his body and she could feel something hard throbbing against her thigh. Her eyes widened.

She looked away and blushed and he pushed his body weight off of her. She scrambled away. Riko's whole face had grown hot and she quickly stood, brushing the dirt off of her kimono.

"I have to…have patients I need…" She muttered and stumbled away. Isamu frowned and cursed while InuYasha smirked. The former samurai turned to his friend.

"Not one word."

The hanyou scoffed.

"And what's a puny human like you gonna do to me?"

Isamu's scowl deepened.

"I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, hanyou. Strength…isn't everything. Fighting takes a great deal of wit, strategy, calculation, and instinct. Do not presume you can match me skill for skill just because you are physically my superior."

InuYasha shrugged.

"Anytime you wanna go I'll be happy to wipe the ground with you."

The ronin shook his head.

"Perhaps later. Now, what did you need?"

He watched the confident smirk fade from his friend's face. He towed the dirt and mumbled.

"Kagome's mad at me."

He nodded and glanced in the direction Riko had gone. "Must be something in the air."

The half demon shrugged again and muttered.

"I don't understand women." Isamu laughed.

"You are not alone, my friend. You are not alone."

* * *

Riko retreated to the relative safety of her hut, and rested her back against the closed door while she got her breathing under control. She touched her still warm cheeks and cursed inwardly.

She was a twenty-six year old widow with a son, not some blushing virgin, but that man could still make her feel like she was in the throes of her first crush. She pressed her hand against her heart and felt its rapid beat.

Kami, she needed to stop this foolishness. Granted, Isamu was a sinfully handsome man and she considered him a good friend, but she did not want, nor need, a husband. She'd already experienced what it meant to be a man's property and she'd vowed never to allow such a thing to happen to her again.

She inadvertently rubbed her legs together and felt her arousal on her thighs. She closed her eyes.

It had been years since she'd wanted a man to touch her. So long in fact that she had long thought she'd exorcised such urges, but now her traitorous body was reminding her that she was a woman…a woman who'd not had a man between her thighs for much too long.

A vision of Isamu's bare chest flashed unbidden behind her eyes and she groaned. She wondered what would have happened if InuYasha hadn't been there. Would he have kissed her? Would he have parted her kimono and wrapped those heavy hands around her breasts?

An image of him naked, driving into her came unbidden and she bit her lip. She opened her eyes and looked around, a bit guilty.

Benji wasn't here. He was with his demon slayer class studying herbal demon deterrents in the nearby woods. She worried her lower lip between her teeth.

She closed her eyes and sunk down onto her nearby futon. Kami, this needed to stop.

Every time she got close to him anymore her body would heat and she started wanting things that she couldn't let herself want. Besides he'd made it abundantly clear to the other women in the village who had tried to catch his eye that his heart belonged to his dead wife.

She couldn't compete with a ghost and she didn't want to.

She sighed, and decided that now wasn't a good time to start lying to herself. If she had any chance of fighting these feelings she at least had to acknowledge them. She was finding more and more that she did want to compete with the lingering specter of his deceased beloved, but she was always deterred from action by her own insecurities.

She pulled her legs to her chest and rested her chin atop her knees, and let her mind drift back to less pleasant memories.

She had been sixteen when she was married to Benjiro's father, Keiichi. He'd been the son of a powerful merchant and had bought her from her dirt poor family.

She hadn't held it against papa at the time. Their family had a small farm and too many mouths to feed. Papa had been cursed with four daughters, and only one son prone to sickliness. When Keiichi had started lusting for her it seemed the perfect solution for all involved to betroth her to him.

Soon after she'd become pregnant with Benji, and had delivered him to this world two months after her seventeenth birthday.

Their first two years together Riko had been relatively happy to be her husband's wife. He had seemed attentive and affectionate to both her and his son, but then he started to lose interest in her.

He stopped coming to her bed at night and he would stay out later and later, indulging his desires in tea houses with his friends.

Then he'd started drinking, really drinking, and the man she'd known…changed.

The first time she'd complained to him about it, he'd smacked her across the face hard enough to send her into a wall. He never apologized.

The next few months after that had become a blur of beatings and cruel words. He told her that she had been bought and paid for like the chattel she was and that she'd do best to mind him.

Then on Benjiro's third birthday something happened that prompted her to action, even if it meant disgrace for her. He'd hit her son.

That night while he was gone, she'd packed up her and her son's meager belongings and fled with him to the western lands. She'd bought her small farm with the money she'd managed to steal from her husband's possessions and never looked back.

But she'd never felt safe.

It wasn't until the year Benji turned five that she was able to truly reclaim her life. By a twist of fate she'd journeyed to a nearby village, to sell some of her medicinal herbs that she grew to the healer, and she'd run into her younger sister, Arin.

She'd almost run when she saw her, but Arin had seen her before she could and had run to embraced her. She has spoken so quickly and excitedly that at first Riko had not understood what her sister was trying to tell her.

Then it had all sunk in.

The night she had fled her village had been attacked by bandits and only a few people had survived. Her family had thought her lost to them because her husband had been found among the murdered.

It was a twist of fate she had not been prepared for, and once again, in the flash of an instant her life had changed.

She'd relished her freedom after learning of her husband's death and had made a modest living on her small herb farm selling remedies, and working as a healer.

Then the ogres had come and decimated her livelihood, and they would have taken her and Benji's life had not Isamu and InuYasha come along.

She sighed. Never had a man caused her heart to pound, her palms to grow sweaty, and her body to react with something as simple as a smile, the way Isamu did. Perhaps it was because his smiles were so very, very rare.

Annoyed with herself and feeling sweaty she decided to have a quick sponge bath before returning to the convalescence hut and checking on her patients. With practiced hands she retrieved her basin, heated some water, and placed some cleansing herbs into the bowl.

She pulled her yukata along with her juban down her shoulders and starting running the cloth over her shoulders, behind her neck, and over her full, bare breasts.

She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn't hear the low cry, nor did she see the shadow as it backed away from her window.

* * *

Tatsuo stroked his cock and watched Riko sensually wash her exposed cleavage. An angry scowl twisted his ferret face, and after a couple more strokes he left the evidence of his presence on the outside of her wall. She didn't hear him grunt or else she would have lifted her head and seen him lurking outside her back window.

His anger grew hotter and his faced flushed red as he tucked his now limp member back under his clothes. He stalked away towards his hut mumbling and cursing and ignoring the strange looks he was getting from the villagers he passed.

He'd followed her after he'd seen her encounter with Isamu and he'd watched the emotions play over her face like an easily read scroll. She was in love with the bastard.

Tatsuo scowled. He hated that disgraced samurai with ever fiber of his being and not simply because he knew the ronin held Riko's heart.

Isamu continually stood in his path. He could have turned the village against the taijiya long ago if that blasted man hadn't constantly defended her.

Disgusted, he threw open the door to his hut and stalked inside. His was a bit larger than most in the village due to the room he'd added on in the back. He headed there now.

The small dark room was windowless, the only light coming from a circle of candles surrounding a small shrine. Without preamble he fell to his knees and looked into the mirror that held the place of honor.

"My lord!" He cried. The surface of the mirror started to swirl and smoke, until the image of a man appeared. Tatsuo felt a growl of distaste claw at his throat, but he held it in. He was much too cowardly to risk offending his master.

His master was busy rutting some inconsequential slip of a girl, but the cold, physical act seemed to do little to his concentration. In fact if Tatsuo hadn't seen there naked bodies moving against each other he would be hard pressed to believe that his master was fucking anyone.

"Why do you disturb me, Tatsuo? Can you not see I am busy?"

Tatsuo looked away, guilty.

"M-My lord, why does the healer resist the potion! You promised…"

"You had better not have interrupted me to whine, Tatsuo. I will not thank you for it." His voice was low and dangerous and the cowardly little man swallowed convulsively.

"N-No my lord. I-I've come to report that the ronin still lives. That damable hanyou and his priestess whore saved him from the demons you sent."

Lord Totoymi's expression did not change, but Tatsuo began to sweat under his unwavering gaze.

"I am displeased, Tatsuo. Very displeased. The village should have long been under my control and the taijiyia grows ever closer. I expect that you will have accomplished the task I have set for you before she reaches my lands."

The ferret faced little man swallowed convulsively. "M-My Lord. I-It will be done."

His master said nothing as the mirror went blank. Tatsuo frowned and eyed the bag of potion he still had left. It was useless for Tatsuo's initial purpose, but perhaps he could use it another way.

He smirked as he thought of the hanyou and his whore and wondered how well his master's spell would work on a half-demon.


	16. Tricks and Traps

"_**Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him."**_

_**Sun Tzu – The Art of War**_

**A/N: Some more lemony stuff, see pervious warning.**

Sango was the first to stir when morning came. At first she didn't recognize the subtly pressure laying on her naked stomach but as she regain consciousness she realized it was Miroku's arm. She blushed crimson and made to pull away, but the hentai monk simply groaned in his sleep and held her tighter. She gave up when she realized he had no intention of letting her go. She sighed softly.

"And just where did you think you were sneaking off too." He said. Her head whipped around.

His eyes were still tightly shut, but he was smiling in that lecherous way only he could. Sango narrowed her eyes.

"I thought you were asleep." His smirk grew wider and he opened his eyes.

"My dear Sango I assure you I was, but really any movement of your spectacular body against mine has the affect of instantly rendering me alert."

She blushed and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Lech," she whispered. He responded by yanking her under him and pinning her with his body. Sango gasped and her blush deepened. He stared into her beautiful eyes and his playful grin faded.

"I wish I could wake up to you in my arms everyday," he whispered, fiercely.

She felt a sob clutch at her throat and would have said something if he hadn't cut her off with a bruising kiss. She clung to him desperately and responded with all the passion she possessed. They were both breathing heavy when they pulled away and she could feel the evidence of his desire for her straining against her bare thigh. She instinctively moved her leg against him and he hissed, his smirk returning.

"Well, well taijiya. You wish to tease do you?"

She frowned, confused and started to say.

"Miroku I don't know what you'r…" She ended with a gasp. He had lowered his dark head and captured a nipple in his hot mouth, stroking and teasing until it was erect. Sango arched against him and buried her hands in is silky hair, holding him to her chest.

She was panting and when she felt his fingers trail over her hip and slip between them to brush a knuckle against her clit. She yelped. Miroku released her nipple with a tiny pop and smirked down at her.

"Sango, did I ever tell you that one of my most frequent and deliciously lecherous fantasies involved having you trapped beneath me, panting, while you came apart in my arms?"

It took a moment for his words to register through the haze of lust he had induced with his ministrations, but when it did she frowned at him.

"I don't like to be trapped, Miroku." He looked at her bemused.

"Hmmm, I would hate to displease you taijiya. Perhaps if we do it this way instead."

She was about to ask him just what he was up too when he suddenly pulled himself off of her and hauled her up with him, settling her so her back was to his chest and she was sitting between his legs. She could feel his erection brushing against her backside and when she shifted to look at him he groaned. His member had brushed along the groove between her cheeks and Miroku found the sensation nothing short of sublime.

He pushed the curtain of black silk trailing down her back to the side and breathed huskily into her ear. "Now, you are free to flee if you have the urge."

Sango opened her lips, but her protests died the moment he sucked lightly on the shell of her ear and brought his hands up to cup her breasts. She moaned as he kneaded, his prayer beads rubbing sensually over her right nipple, while he kissed a path down her slender throat. Sango arched against him and he hissed as her magnificent ass rubbed him again.

"Miroku," she panted. He smirked against her skin.

"Do you wish to escape taijiya?"

She moaned again and slow shook her head, 'no'. Miroku's grin turned devilish. His right hand continued its assault on her soft mound while his left slowly trailed down her ribcage, over her taut abdomen, and lower, to gently brush the curls near her sex. She squirmed against him and he teased her by brushing his fingers over the top of her mound, ignoring her glistening lips and her engorged clit.

She tried bucking her hips to get him to touch her the way she wanted, but he simply continued to tease the soft skin.

"Miroku please," she whined. He ran his tongue over the shell of her ear and whispered.

"Please what? Tell me what you want me to do Sango." She mewled and bit her lip, an embarrassed flush staining her cheeks.

"T-Touch me, houshi…please."

He briefly thought of making her beg, but decided that would simply be cruel.

"Your wish is my command."

Miroku's fingers trailed lower and he parted her folds to rub against her clit. Her hips jerked.

"M-More," she gasped. He smiled and this time he plunged two fingers into her dripping sex causing her to arc and rub against him. He groaned and started pumping his digits in and out, brushing her clit with each stroke. Sango started bucking her hips in time to his thrusts and undulating uncontrollably. Miroku watched her go wild in his arms and felt justifiably smug. He continued to thrust inside her, adding a third finger and increasing the speed.

Sango groaned and her cries became increasingly louder until finally she arched her back and screamed his name. He continued to pump into her until she came back down from her orgasm and collapsed back against his chest panting. She was blushing madly and she tilted her head forward to hide her face in her hair.

He brushed it away.

"Sango?" She blushed deeper.

"I can't believe how…how wanton you make me."

"Does it embarrass you, taijiya."

"A-A little." He sighed and embraced her, pulling her against his chest.

"Please my beautiful Sango. Please don't ever be embarrassed by your response to my touch. I want you to feel pleasure. I need you to so that I will have something to hold on to when…." He trailed off, but she understood.

She turned in his arms and kissed him, her tongue dueling with his as she pulled him down on top of her. Miroku groaned into her mouth and kissed her back, as desperate as she was. He wasted no time slipping inside her warmth, groaning at the feel of her velvet soft core caressing his swollen flesh.

Miroku started to move, pumping in and out, of her, gradually increasing the pace. Sango wasn't idle, meeting him thrust for thrust. Soon both were panting and moaning as they raced towards the building crescendo.

"Sango," Miroku groaned as he arched into her. Sango cried out at the same moment as both climaxed in perfect harmony. When they both came down from the heavens Miroku pulled Sango into his arms and held on for dear life.

It was the most wonderful and bittersweet moment of his existence.

* * *

Sango and Miroku left the inn later than they initially intended but neither seemed to care too much. She glanced at the monk and felt a blush stain her cheeks. He caught it and grinned back at her, waggling his eyebrows.

She rolled her eyes.

"You're incorrigible." He smirked.

"Only where you're concerned, my dear Sango."

She laughed and took his uncursed hand in hers, lacing their fingers. She knew that what they had done together hadn't changed the fact that he was going to leave her, but right now she refused to think of it. Right now he was here and they were together.

It was the only thing that mattered.

He seemed to sense her thoughts and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"Sango, I've been thinking. We are a half a day's journey from a temple that is cared for by an old friend of my grandfather's and it might behoove us to seek him out and see if perhaps he has more information on Lord Toyotomi. My grandfather was no fool. I believe that although he never spoke of his task, he probably left something behind that would give us a clue as to why we are being summoned."

She frowned.

"You think we should go to the temple and see? Are you sure you wish to do that Miroku? It might make us late arriving in Toyotomi's domain."

He gazed into the distance, thoughtful.

"I think it is a calculated risk. We both feel that something is wrong with this summons. Add Lady Kaede's perplexing, if obscure, vision and the feeling becomes something more substantial than superstition. I believe that we should enter the Shogun's domain with as much information as possible."

Sango thought about his suggestion for a moment. She had to admit that the closer they journeyed to the southern lands the more uneasy she'd become. Now that her emotions were calmer, more lucid, the feeling had intensified. She frowned. As a taijiya she'd long since learned to trust her instincts. They had saved her life on more that one occasion and now they were thrumming madly. Part of her had the brief thought of simply abandoning this task altogether, but then she remembered what Kaede had told Miroku of the children.

Whatever awaited them beyond the horizon she knew that they needed to face it, or else it would simply keep growing.

Sango glanced down at Miroku's right hand and felt a stab in her heart. Besides who knew how much more time they would have together. She wanted to see this through to the end.

"All right. Let's go and see him."

He nodded and together they took the fork in the roadway to the east and towards the temple.

* * *

Tatsuo had been trying to figure out a way all day to introduce the potion created by his master into the hanyou's blood stream. He'd briefly thought of simply slipping it in the well, but he did not have enough. When the serum became too diluted its affects were greatly diminished.

His next plan was to somehow introduce the serum into his food, but someone was always around inside Riko's hut. If it wasn't the half demon's little whore, it was Riko's little brat, Benjiro. The other flaw in that plan was that he couldn't guarantee that the hanyou would be dosed with the serum.

He was running out of plans until the bright idea to use some of the village's herbal weapons flittered across his tiny little mind. Now all he had to do was acquire the bait. Tatsuo slunk back in the shadows near the well and waited. It was getting dark and not many of the villagers were out and about at this time due to the recent demon attack.

His moment came when he saw the priestess step out of Riko's hut and start walking towards the well with a bucket in her hands.

"I'll get the water, Riko," she called over her shoulder. Tatsuo tensed and waited. Kagome wasn't paying attention as she passed near the gap between huts and she didn't see the man reach out from the shadows until it was too late.

He'd soaked a rag in the solution they villagers used to make the knock-out pellets and quickly covered her mouth and nose with it. Kagome's eyes went wide and she started screaming and struggling. The rags muffled the sound and soon the miko felt her eyelids grow heavy, before she finally slumped to the ground.

Tatsuo looked around fearfully, grabbed her, and laid her body on the cart he'd brought from his home. He quickly covered her with a blanket and rolled his burden out of the west gates and into the woods.

The guards posted for the evening watch nodded to him and he nodded back. They were men who were loyal to him, and therefore they did not question him. He looked back and pulled the cart as fast as he could to the cave he'd found earlier that day.

He knew he didn't have long before the hanyou realized the girl was missing. The fool was always keeping track of her.

Tatsuo reached the cave without incident and pulled the unconscious miko off the cart and propped her up against the wall. Now all he had to do was set his trap. He placed a layer of pellets at the entrance, moved away, and made sure to hide downwind. He didn't have long to wait. InuYasha came running towards him and stopped, sniffing the air.

The hanyou scowled and drew his fang. The sword transformed and he scented the air again. Tatsuo felt a bead of sweat roll down his back. He'd masked his scent in animal dung, but maybe he hadn't used enough of it. He watched nervously as the half breed looked around, looking for something in the dense forest, before turning back to the entrance of the cave.

A moment later he stepped forward, right on to the pellets Tatsuo had laid. They broke open and a wave of foul smelling gas assault him. InuYasha didn't have time to hold his nose and back away. He inhaled the gas, teetered dangerously, and fell to the ground unconscious.

Tatsuo smirked victoriously as he crept from his hiding place. Holding his breath, he removed a small vial from the sleeves of his kimono and made his way to the fallen half breed. Cautiously, and not without trepidation, he knelt down, opened his mouth, and poured the vial down his throat.

The unconscious hanyou swallowed convulsively and Tatsuo's smirk widened into a self satisfied grin. He stood up and started the journey back to the village.

Now it was only a matter of time.


	17. Lust and Love

_**"There is no evil angel but Love"**_

_**William Shakespeare - Love's Labour's Lost**_

InuYasha's golden eyes blinked, once, twice, before he moaned and gradually regained consciousness. Slowly, he pushed himself into a seated position and looked around uncomprehendingly. The world spun, fuzzy and distorted and he shook his head, trying to get rid of the hazy feeling that seemed to have gripped his senses.

It was no good, he simply couldn't concentrate.

He tried to scowl but his lips wouldn't cooperate. He staggered to his feet, swaying slightly when he tried to step forward, and his eyes landed on Kagome. With unsure steps he stumbled over to the miko and fell at her side.

"Kagome?" He rasped. She didn't move. Knowing something was wrong, but unable to focus long enough to even begin to work out what it was, he leaned in, intending to pick her up and take her from the cave. The moment he got too close her scent assaulted his nose.

Hardwired instincts suddenly awakened and his body turned hard instantly. As if in a trance a languid feeling of pure desire suffused his blood and a low growl rumbled in his throat. Sweet Kami, she smelled good.

He had never really figured out why Kagome's scent had such an arousing affect on him. Her scent should have been tainted with all the chemicals and pollutants that choked the air in her time, but it wasn't. He couldn't really even say she smelled of anything in particular. She simply smelled like Kagome.

He bent his head and nuzzled the bare skin in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. Unable to stop himself he nipped the skin and then ran his tongue over the small red mark he'd left. She winced and stirred a little, but didn't awaken. Growling again, he rubbed his nose down, following the line of her blouse until he reached the end of the plunging v-neck. Irritated, he used his claw to pop the first button, and then the second, causing the material to gape open. The functional white bra she wore was now visible. InuYasha rubbed his nose over the slope of her right breast, moving down to nuzzle between them.

He inhaled again and the scent of her soft skin caused his cock to twitch. Kami, he wanted her right now. His hands flew to the ties of his hakama and he had the first knot loosened before he realized what he was doing. Horrified, he blinked and stumbled back from her and glanced down at his shaking hands.

Holy shit, he'd almost…

Unnerved, his ears flattened against his head and he crouched on the far end of the cave away from her. He could still feel his blood pounding, urging him to strip her and mate her. He started towards her again, but he stopped himself, pulling his ears and whimpering pathetically. The demon inside him roared and his hand immediately moved to his belt so he could grip Tetsusaiga's handle. His claws closed over air. Startled, he looked down and realized his sword was no longer there. Eyes narrowing he scanned the cave and found his sword sticking out of the ground near the mouth of the cave. He started towards it, reached his hand out to curl his fingers around the handle, and was thrown away.

He hit the ground hard. Confused now, InuYasha sat up. Why had Tetsusaiga rejected him? Unless…

He held his hands out, palm up and noticed to his dismay that his claws were elongating. His demon was trying to take over. He glanced back at Kagome and a powerful surge of lust gripped his loins. The demon in him fought for dominance, demanding that he mark her, mate her, and make her his forever.

InuYasha griped his ears again and howled. He couldn't let the demon do this. He had to be stronger. He tried to run away, but the demon wouldn't let him, so in the end he simply curled in upon himself and hoped he could hold his demon back until Kagome woke up.

* * *

Kagome groaned and gingerly opened her eyes and blinked a few times, before fully reawakening to her surroundings. She groaned again and pushed herself away from the wall, stretching a kink out of her back.

"Where am I?" She mumbled and would have rose to her feet had her gaze not caught a familiar red figure huddled in the corner, curled into a ball, and rocking back and forth. She frowned, confused. Tetsusaiga was stuck in the dirt not five feet away from him, and it had transformed back into its disguise as a rust covered relic.

"InuYasha?"

"Go away," he growled. Concerned, she quickly rose to her feet and took a step towards him. He screamed this time.

"No! Don't come near me! Go away Kagome! Run!"

She paused and felt her stomach knot. He'd been serious, very serious. More than a little scared now, she regarded him warily.

"InuYasha what is it? What's going on?" He shook his head violently and continued rocking.

"InuYasha!" She commanded. He abruptly turned to face her and she gasped.

His eyes were bleeding through with red and faint purple slashes faded in and out across his cheekbones. His tortured gaze met hers; he was violently trying to keep his inner demon at bay.

"Please Kagome, run. I don't know how much longer I can…" He suddenly screamed and she took an instinctive step towards him only to be thrown backwards when he pounced on her and pinned her to the ground. She wiggled, struggling against his iron grip only to freeze when she felt something digging into her thigh. Her eyes went wide. He was fully, painfully aroused.

The gravity of the situation finally sunk in. She couldn't even protect herself with osuwari because he was fully on top of her.

She met his eyes and found his golden orbs were now completely red and the purple slashes were defined against his sharp cheekbones. The demon growled low in his throat and started sniffing near her neck only to move lower between her breasts. Sharp, deadly, elongated claws gripped her hips savagely and she whimpered when she felt a trickle of blood roll down her skin.

"InuYasha," she whispered, desperately. She needed to reach him. His response was to quickly and savagely rip open her top and bra and bare her naked breasts to the chilly air. She gasped. He was…she….Kami; he was going to rape her! The demon bent his head and licked a path from her right nipple all the way up her neck to her chin. She stilled.

He seemed to take this as some sort of compliance because he used his claws again and ripped away her skirt, leaving her in nothing but her pink panties. His hands fumbled with his hakama, trying to push the red fabric down his legs. She could feel his throbbing erection near her thigh and knew that if she didn't do something quick he was going to free his cock and plunge into her.

She also knew that if she allowed that to happen, when InuYasha came out of this he was going to hate himself.

Forcing down the bone crushing fear pulsating through her veins she assessed the situation. She couldn't struggle. She knew better, knew that in this state he was more primal and powerful than when his human side had control of his actions. Struggling would not only allow him to rape her, but would probably get her killed in the process.

While she'd been thinking, he'd gotten his cock free and she now felt the steely flesh against her naked thigh. She'd run out of time. Acting on instinct and some barely remember conversation about youkai matting rituals that she'd once had with Sango, Kagome did the only thing she could. She wrapped her arms around his waist tightly and exposed her throat to his fangs.

It was the ultimate symbol of trust for a female demon to make herself vulnerable to death from the male by exposing her jugular. InuYasha stilled above her, growling low in his throat.

Kagome waited and whispered. "Please InuYasha, please come back to me."

She felt him move, his hitoe brushing against her bare skin, and she had to struggle against the urge to jerk away when she felt his fangs run lightly over the pulsing vein. He growled again and his tongue slipped out and ran back and forth, back and forth, while his teeth gently pinched the soft flesh. She felt a shiver go down her spine. It didn't help that even though she was afraid, she found the contact arousing, and she could tell by the pleased rumble in his chest that he'd noticed the change in her scent.

"Come back InuYasha. I love you, please come back to me."

He responded by nipping the shell of her ear and sliding one of his palms up her ribcage to cup her breast. She hissed when his claws gently scratched over her nipple. It puckered instantly. InuYasha seemed pleased by this and he growled low again.

She shuddered and tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"InuYasha, please. Not like this."

The hanyou wasn't listening. When his head descended and he dragged his tongue over her distended areole she bit her lip to keep from crying out and arched into him. She felt the junction between her thighs grow wet and warm and she wanted to die of shame. How many times had she wished for him to stop running from his feelings and finally admit that he wanted her? How often had she fantasized about making love to him?

She couldn't let him take her like this, or else all her hopes for some sort of future with him would be crushed under his guilt when he finally regained his senses.

"InuYasha, I love you. I know this isn't you. Please fight. Come back to me."

She felt him jerk and his nails dug into her skin again. She cried out in pain and his head whipped up, their eyes met and he could see the grimace of agony, the lingering fear, and the tears dusting her dark lashes and rolling down her cheeks. He suddenly roared, clutched his head in his hands, and sprung back away from her. She sat up and tried to cover herself with her now tattered clothes as she watched him thrash about. His eyes were once again, bled through with streaks of gold and the purple slashes were fading in and out. He met her gaze and spat.

"Sit me, Kagome! I don't know how long I can…" His paused and his eyes went red again.

"Sit boy!" She screamed as the demon charged. The beads of subjugation flared once and drove him to the ground. Crazed beyond reason, he snarled and scratched at the earth, unable to move.

Kagome didn't think about it, again acting on instinct. She ran over, grabbed Tetsusaiga and ran back towards InuYasha. As soon as she got too close, she felt the magic of the sword trying to repel her backwards. She gritted her teeth and pushed through the field and lay down on InuYasha's back, keeping the flat of the blade between their bodies.

A flash of pure energy arched between them and he screamed in agony. When it was gone he lay still between them. Kagome waited a moment and then gingerly pulled away from him, leaving his sword in contact with his body.

He lay on the ground, unconscious, and the purple markings were now completely gone.

She felt the tension leave her body and boneless, she sunk down on her knees near his head and gently ran slim fingers through his silver hair.

He started to stir a moment later and groggily lifted his golden eyes to her brown. He blinked once, twice, tree times, grabbed Tetsusaiga, and scrambled away from her to the far corner of the cave, shaking. He noticed his now limp member was still hanging out of his pants and blushing with shame he sheathed his sword and adjusted himself so that he was covered.

One glance at Kagome and he wordlessly shrugged out of his hitoe and threw it at her. She caught it reflexively and wrapped the warm fir rat jacket around her smaller frame.

"InuYasha…" she started to say just as he said. "Dammit Kagome, when I fucking tell you to run you need to listen to me!"

She narrowed her eyes and rested her hands on her hips, glaring.

"If I'd have listened to you there is no telling what you would have done, idiot! You weren't exactly in your right mind!"

He looked away and hung his head in shame. "I could have…I almost…"

He couldn't say it. Kagome felt her anger evaporate as quickly as it had come. She crossed over to him and he flinched instinctively. She pursed her lip in annoyance and wrapped her arms around him.

"Kagome?"

She held him tighter, and a moment later his arms embraced her, pulling her against his chest. She sighed in triumphant.

"You would never hurt me, InuYasha. Not you, not your demon. I trust you." He swallowed passed the lump lodge in his throat and murmured gruffly.

"How can you have that kind of faith in me? It's dangerous Kagome. You shouldn't trust me. I can't always control..."

She cut him off. "But you did control it. If you hadn't nothing I did would have been able to stop the demon from taking me. You know that."

He rested his head atop hers and held her closer. He wasn't so sure. He'd never felt anything like what had been humming through his blood not five minutes ago. The moment he'd awaken in the cave and seen Kagome lying there he'd been hit with a surge of lust so powerful it was all he could do not to strip her naked and pound into her until he was spent.

He had wanted her so badly it had been physically painful. And when the human in him resisted the demon had stared clawing its way out degree by agonizing degree. He felt bile rise in his gourd. He could have really hurt her.

Kagome seemed to sense what he was thinking and instinctively brushed her lips against the pulse point of his throat to comfort him. He went motionless but relaxed a little when he realized the lust he felt right now as not the out of control, painful wanting he'd felt earlier.

They were silently for a few minutes, each absorbing the warmth of the other until Kagome broke it with a question.

"What happened, InuYasha? The last thing I remember was walking to the well to get water for Riko and then nothing until I woke up."

He sighed and she felt it run through her body.

"I don't know. When you didn't come back, Riko sent Benji to find me and I followed your scent here. Someone was with you but the scent was masked under animal feces. I couldn't tell who it was. The next thing I knew I'd been gassed with youkai pellets."

She bit her lip and frowned, thoughtful. "That means it had to be someone from the village doesn't it? The villagers are the only ones with access to youkai deterrents."

He scowled. He knew of only one man in the village who might do something like this.

The only question now was, why?


	18. Bad Blood

_**"Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?"**_

_**William Shakespeare - MacBeth  
**_

Lord Toyotomi was in a foul temper and Michi knew better than to cross his lord when he was in this sort of mood. The kitchen boy scurried down the hallway that lead to the servants quarters, keeping his head down and his eyes averted as some of his lord's vassals passed by him. He stopped and bowed respectfully before hurrying away again.

The vassals didn't notice him, nor did they acknowledge the gesture of respect. Michi knew though, had he failed to behave in a proper manner one of them would have noticed and probably had him beaten. He had learned long ago that to survive in Toyotomi's castle one had to be invisible, and he was very good at being invisible.

Hoping no one else came along to impede his journey he slipped around the corner, down the servant's hall, and into a room at the end. His sister Mari hadn't moved from the spot she'd been in for the past few days, ever since she'd been summoned to Lord Toyotomi's chamber.

The boy hurried over to her, but when he sat down on the edge of the futon next to her she recoiled from him and pulled her body into a fetal position.

"You need to stop coming in here Michi. It's not safe," she whispered. He scowled, the way only ten year old boys can, and sulkily placed the food he'd sneaked from the kitchen on the edge of the bed next to her.

"You need to eat something sister. You're getting too weak and you're going to get sick."

The fourteen year old shook her head and continued to stare at the wall. She couldn't tell her brother that it didn't matter if she wasted away to nothing. She was shamed. No man would ever want to touch her after what Lord Toyotomi had done to her.

She closed her eyes tightly and spoke in a broken voice.

"Michi, you need to get away from this place." He shook his head mutinously although she couldn't see him.

"No! I'm not leaving you. I don't want to lose you Mari, not like mom and dad."

She felt a sob claw at her throat and she turned towards her brother and pulled him into a tight hug. He hugged her back just as desperately. After a few moments she lifted him up so she could meet his eyes. He swallowed. He'd never seen his sister look like that before.

"Listen to me little brother; it's too late for me. I've already let Lord Toyotomi take me, but I also over heard him talking while I was there. There is going to be another sacrifice, just like the one that took your friend Nao. I want you to flee from this castle. Run and never look back. You must do this for me."

Tears started to leak down his cheeks and he started shaking his head furiously.

"No! No I won't do it! I won't leave you."

She grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"You have too!" And this time she pulled the blanket down that had been covering her stomach. He recoiled and started shaking his head in denial.

"No sister. Please no. Please tell me he didn't…"

She smiled sadly and ran a hand over her abdomen, feeling the withering, swirling mass of her distended belly.

"It's what happens to all the girls that are taken to our Lord's bed. Soon they will come for me and bare me away and you will never see me again. My last request of you brother is that you save yourself. Flee from this place, tonight. Find a new life away from this tainted palace. I beg you Michi."

Michi reached over and hugged her sister tighter.

"I'll hide for now, but I'm not leaving the palace, and I'm not giving up. I'm going to find a way to save you, sister."

Just as quickly as he'd come, he left and Mari watched her baby brother leave her with sad eyes.

"Your love is going to be the death of you, my brother."

* * *

Kagome hissed and winced as she wiggled her jeans over the raw scraps marring the ivory skin of her slim hips. InuYasha heard the small sound and the rustle of fabric as she secured her clothing, but didn't turn around. His ears flattened against his skull and a wave of shame washed over him again with the force of a raging tsunami.

He still couldn't believe what he'd almost done. He chanced a glance at the miko and saw her struggling with her baby blue t-shirt. He quickly averted his gaze.

She'd made him go back to the village and retrieve her spare clothing from her yellow backpack. He'd protested at first, saying he wanted to have the element of surprise when he confronted Tatsuo, but she'd indelicately pointed out that there was no way she was walking back into the village wearing only his hitoe.

What she didn't have to point out was how it would have looked. Even he wasn't that obtuse. He felt humiliation squeeze his chest and lost in his self-disgust he hadn't realized Kagome had finished changing until he felt her fingers lightly grasp his forearm. He looked at her and looked away, unable to take the compassion and forgiveness he saw in her doe eyes.

"InuYasha…" She started to say, but he shrugged off her hand, pulled away, and cut her off.

"We need to go. I don't want Tatsuo to slither away before I get a chance to talk to him." _Talk to him, terrorize him, gut him… what was the difference?_

Kagome narrowed her gaze and a vein starting ticking in her temple. InuYasha was unwisely oblivious to her building anger. She crossed her arms and pursed her lips; he still wouldn't look at her, he'd even turned away to start towards the village.

A low growl from her throat caught his attention and he made the mistake of turning towards her and glancing up; his eyes widened in realization when he saw the look on her face.

"No don't!" He said at the same time she bellowed.

"Sit boy!"

The beads of subjugation glowed bright and a mumbled curse slipped from his throat as he was slammed unmercifully to the ground.

"Kagome!" He snarled when he could speak again. She yelled again. "Sit, Sit, Sit, Sit, Sit!"

He yelped as his body rose up and slammed down with each damning syllable that fell from her lips. It was a good while before he was able to move again and look up. When he did the angry words that had been on the tip of his tongue died when he took in Kagome's shaking shoulders and glistening cheeks.

She was crying. He looked at her, bewildered.

"Kagome," he whispered, weakly. Her eyes snapped to his and she clenched her fists.

"You are such an idiot!" She turned away again, sobbing uncontrollably. He wanted to fight his natural urge to comfort her; still unsure of touching her, even though he'd allowed himself to hold her in the cave. He gazed at her helplessly and found himself powerless to stop himself from pulling her into his arms again.

To his surprise she followed him and buried her face in his robes while he enfolded her against his chest.

"Y-You baka…can't b-believe you…always pushing…."

Her voice was muffled against the fabric of his kosode. The thin undershirt was soon soaked with her tears and as she fisted her hands in the fabric, practically burrowing into him. He ran his hands up and down her back soothingly and rested his head on top of hers.

He didn't really understand why she was crying and her jumbled curses and phrases weren't helping. So he simply held her, feeling elated and guilty that she obviously wasn't holding what had happened against him.

He frowned. Not that he was likely to forget it anytime soon. He tensed and she felt the change in his body as she pulled away to look him straight in the eye.

"Stop it," she commanded. He frowned, puzzled.

"Stop what?" She angrily brushed her remaining tears away from her cheeks.

"Stop pulling away from me! I swear you are the most stubborn, pig-headed, annoying….argh!"

He was still looking a bit clueless, but at least he hadn't released his hold on her. Kagome attempted to take a calming breath, closed her eyes, opened them, and met his gaze again with all the determination and conviction she could muster.

"InuYasha, please listen to me. It wasn't your fault. I may not know what that bastard did to you, but I know it wasn't you. I meant what I said in the cave. You would never hurt me, but I swear to Kami if you keep trying to push me away from you I will say 'it' so many times that you won't even know your own name when I done. Then I'll go back home for two weeks, refuse to hunt anymore jewel shards, and take a nice, relaxing vacation somewhere you can't follow me! And after I've done that, I'm gonna come back here and say 'it' a few more times, just to remind you not to be this stupid again!"

She buried her face in his chest again, holding him tighter and his arms tightened around her small frame convulsively. His throat felt dry and he couldn't swallow passed the lump that had suddenly become lodge near his Adam's apple.

Had anyone ever accepted him like Kagome had? The last person he could definitively say had was his mother, and that was a long time ago. His chest rumbled, half between an approving growl and a contented sigh.

He thought once again how much he truly didn't deserve her, but he held on for a few more minutes before reluctantly pulling away. She let him go and he tenderly brushed the back of his fingers against her tear stained cheek, before stepping back. His voice was gruff and contrite when he mumbled.

"I'm...I'm…" He was trying to say he was sorry but the word wouldn't come. She shook her head ruefully and rolled her eyes.

"Come on, baka." She tugged on the sleeve of his kosode, leading him away. He scoffed, bent down to retrieve his hitoe when they passed it, and uttered a low, "keh," but he followed.

Kagome fought the urge to shake her head.

He was never going to change.

* * *

Tatsuo was scared. He slipped back into the village sweating profusely and mumbling under his breath. He'd thought his plan was so perfect and had almost cried out with glee when he'd seen the hanyou return to the village to retrieve the strange clothing out of the yellow sack the miko was known to carry. He'd even followed him discreetly, being extremely careful to stay down wind, and seen the girl wearing the hanyou's hitoe and carrying her ripped clothing, but then he'd overheard their conversation.

Instead of raping her and gutting her like he should have done the little bitch had somehow helped him overcome the potion. He scowled and stalked to his hut. He still had no idea how she'd done it. Wasting no time, he ignored his wife's questions and pushed his way into his backroom. He looked at the mirror and ran a nervous hand through his thinning hair.

His master would not be pleased if he contacted him now, especially since his latest scheme had not yielded the results that he'd hoped. He was running out of time and options.

Feeling cornered, Tatsuo started digging through a nearby trunk, looking for the item his master had given him to use as a last resort. When his hands closed over it he smiled a smile that was very close to being unhinged and pulled the item out of the trunk.

It was an amulet with an obsidian stone deeply set in gold. The aura around the piece was choking and Tatsuo felt what was left of his soul scream in agony as he placed the piece around his neck.

Inky black tendrils of power started swirling around and around. Tatsuo screamed in agony and fell to his knees. A moment latter he heard his wife pounding on his door, demanding entry, but he couldn't move. The swirling energy surrounded him, engulfed him, and he screamed and screamed and screamed.

Finally he collapsed in a heap on the floor, barely able to move. He could still hear his wife yelling for him but it sounded far away. He drifted in between waking and dreaming unsure of what was happening and very afraid. The darkness swirled around him and slowly he drifted into it and allowed it to consume him.

When it was gone the man known as Tatsuo was no more and in his place there was something else…something purely evil. The thing rose and his watery brown eyes were now solid black. The smile that twisted stolen lips was predatory.

The being threw open the door and Tatsuo's wife fell into the room.

"Hello dear."

She started screaming.


	19. Revelations

"_**The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones."**_

_**William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar**_

The first thing InuYasha noticed when he and Kagome returned to the village was the metallic smell of fresh blood on the air. The second was the group of villagers milling around a prone body. He scented the air again and almost recoiled. They reeked of fear and confusion. Benji caught sight of the two and started running towards them. He threw himself into Kagome's arms.

"Kagome the bad man took mommy!"

Kagome caught the little boy and he buried his tear streaked face into her chest, locking his arms around her neck in a death grip. She exchanged a look with InuYasha and he nodded as they approached the group. The villagers parted as they saw them coming, some of them looking relieved and some of them staring at the pair with accusing eyes.

The body turned out to the Isamu. Kagome gasped and raced over to the fallen ronin, still clutching the boy.

He groaned and blinked slowly coming to.

"Kagome?" He whispered. The miko swallowed in relief and nodded.

"What happened?"

He pushed himself into a sitting position and the villagers backed away.

Shaking the grogginess away, he clenched and unclenched his fists. _Riko, _his mind screamed. The bastard had Riko. A feeling not unlike desperation gripped his chest and he fought with everything he had in him to remain calm. He needed calm, he needed reason, going off half cocked would not help her. He drew a trembling hand through shaggy locks and turned to the miko.

The concern in her eyes almost undid him and the wild anxiety increased ten fold. He wanted to rail at the heavens but instead he said.

"Tatsuo threw me into a wall and grabbed Riko. Something was wrong with him Kagome…his eyes…you should've seen his eyes."

The fear that tinged the ronin's words made Kagome's heart pound. Isamu was like InuYasha, he never admitted to fear and to hear it now…

One of Tatsuo's men sneered and said loudly.

"He lies. I bet he did something to the healer and Master Tatsuo, and is simply trying to cover his crimes."

Injured or not, those words caused the former samurai to surge to his feet. Hot rage pounded through his veins and he clutched his sword, spun, and placed the razor sharp tip at the man's throat. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and a rush of bloodlust assailed him. He wanted blood, he wanted blood for Riko, and this maggot would do just as well as Tatsuo.

"You miserable worm, you have insulted my honor. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't run you through?"

The bravado in the villager's eyes dimmed considerable and he gulped.

Kagome turned frightened eyes on InuYasha and he nodded, stepping between the two men. He grabbed Isamu shoulder and shook him.

"We don't have time for this. I smell blood and a lot of it." The ronin blinked and his mouth thinned.

"Where?"

InuYasha gestured with his chin.

"It's coming from Tatsuo's hut."

The man who'd accused Isamu sneered.

"See I told you. I told you he killed him."

Isamu moved so quickly the villager didn't know what had hit him. He brought his elbow around and clocked him in the face, dropping him in one blow. He groaned and fell unconscious and the rest of the men loyal to Tatsuo immediately rushed over and grabbed him. They were glaring at Isamu. The rest of the villagers started murmuring amongst themselves, some of them loudly supporting Isamu and some of them siding with Tatsuo's men.

The ronin ignored them and motioned InuYasha towards the hut. He nodded and followed. When they got to the door they found it ajar and both men quickly took position on either side.

InuYasha wrinkled his nose and gagged.

"What is it?"

He looked at the ronin. "Blood, feces, and some sort of cloying demonic aura. I haven't smelled a stench like it since…"

"Since when?"

The hanyou face went hard. "Since Naraku."

Isamu frowned and readied his sword and InuYasha drew Tetsusaiga. The ronin nodded and the half-demon entered the hut, and Isamu followed covering his back. They went through the main room and InuYasha followed the smell into the back. What they found there had both men turning a sickly shade of green.

"It's Tatsuo's wife," Isamu whispered. InuYasha had covered his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his robe.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

The two men stumbled out of the hut and Kagome ran over to them. The rest of the village had followed her and also stood around waiting for what he was going to say.

"It's Mia, Tatsuo's wife. She's dead."

A loud wail came from the crowd and a middle aged woman ran forward.

"My sister. My sister!" She sobbed. Kagome recognized her as Eri. She was one of the first to settle in the village after the war and despite Tatsuo's troublesome nature, she had done everything in her power to show that she supported Sango.

Kagome placed Benji down, keeping hold of his hand and pulled the woman into a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Eri."

The older woman clung to the miko and sobbed. When she was able to somewhat speak she asked fearfully.

"What of Shuji? Is he in there as well."

Isamu frowned softly, sadly and shook his head.

Hope curled in Eri's heart. "Then he might still be alive."

The ronin highly doubted it, not after having seen the scene, but he didn't want to crush her hope. Besides his thoughts had shifted once again to Riko; he had to find her, and he had to find her now.

As if reading his mind Kagome placed a comforting hand on his forearm.

"We'll find her. I swear."

She prayed it was a promise she would be able to keep.

* * *

"Miroku, my boy."

The wizened old man shuffled towards the monk and the slayer and blinked his weak, light blue eyes as the blurry shapes grew closer. He pulled the young monk into a brisk hug and he returned it gently.

"It is good to see you again Master Manabu."

The old man waved him off and waggled his eyebrows at Sango.

"And who is this beautiful young woman? Don't tell me a flower such as yourself has fallen for the dubious charms of this lecherous holy man."

Sango smirked and blushed. "He does seem to know you pretty well, Miroku."

Miroku shrugged and winked at her. "Not as well as you do, my love."

She blushed deeper and was equal parts thrilled that he called her his love and embarrassed that he would use such innuendo in front of a stranger. She glared at him and he smiled wider.

Manabu chuckled. "Young love, does an old heart good to see."

Miroku laughed outright and slapped the old man on the back. "You're half blind old-man."

The old priest bristled. "That doesn't mean I can't see what's right in front of my face." He turned away mumbling. "Insolent…needs to show more respect for his elders…should flog him."

Sango heard the mutterings and instantly her hand covered her mouth to stifle her giggles. Manabu looked back, annoyed.

"Well are you two going to stand there all day or are you going to come inside for some tea? Figured be nice to have a few cups before we get into to why you're here."

Miroku joviality left him and he regarded him seriously.

"You already know why we're here Master?"

He briefly looked over his shoulder and nodded. "Don't need to be a seer to know that. You're here for the same reason your father came. You want to know about Toyotomi."

Sango and Miroku exchanged a look and followed the monk into the temple. Miroku knelt with him and preformed their cleansing rituals and Sango mimicked them before following them back to what could only be the old man's chambers.

He motioned for them both to sit at the low table and soon after, another monk, this one much younger than Manabu, came in with a tray of tea.

"This is Sadao, he's my new apprentice." Miroku bowed politely to the young man and he hastily bowed back.

"Will you fetch the scrolls Sadao?" He bowed again, nodded, and walked away to comply with his Master's request.

Sango rose to start pouring tea but Manabu waved her off and did it himself. They sat in silence for a few moments, each enjoying the warmth from their cups and waiting on the ancient monk to begin. He took his time and both were shifting impatiently. He noticed.

"Just enjoy your tea for now. I'm afraid that my recollections will not be as concise as those that have been written down. When Sadao returns with the scrolls we will discuss what you've come to discuss, not before."

Miroku frowned slightly. "What sort of scrolls is he bringing, Master?"

To Miroku's surprise Manabu gestured towards Sango. "The taijiya will find them very interesting. They are a lost history of sorts and concern the powerful priestess Midoriko."

Sango started in surprise. "Midoriko? I don't understand. What does Priestess Midoriko have to do with Lord Toyotomi? She lived more than five centuries ago."

The monk smiled. "I promise to answer all of your questions if I am capable of doing so, but you must understand taijiya, much of what I know has been pieced together through the years from various accounts and texts and may be nothing more than one old man's theory."

Miroku shrugged. "Conjecture and a vague sense of foreboding is all that we had when we began this journey. At least, by your own admission, some of what you have to tell us will have some basis in fact."

Manabu opened his mouth to reply but at that moment Sadao returned with his arms full of old scrolls. He gingerly laid them next to his master.

"Will that be all, Master Manabu?"

"Yes, thank you Sadao."

He bowed to his master and then turned and bowed to Sango and Miroku.

"Master; honored guests." He left. Manabu picked up a nearby scroll, unfurled it with the utmost delicacy, and turned to Sango.

"Tell me taijiya, what do you know of the Priestess Midoriko?"

"Only the stories my father told me when I was younger. Most of the stores were about the battle against the youkai that created the Shikon no Tama and the founding of the youkai taijiya village."

Manabu nodded. "Yes, those are the most common tales. I have here something that might shed a bit of light on her earlier years, in the time before she became the priestess of legend.'

He pointed to the scroll he held and Sango leaned forward eagerly, her eyes widened.

"T-This can't be, how…?"

He smiled and Miroku, curious leaned forward as well. He crowded near Sango to get a better look at the scroll and she blushed lightly. Unable to resist he dropped a quick kiss on the back of her neck where it met her shoulder. She jumped a little and glared at him. If Manabu noticed he didn't say anything. He was too busy pointing something out on the scroll.

"A very powerful monk from this temple once assisted the young priestess many centuries ago. It was during the time when our order was not as widely spread as it is today. I'm afraid that his name has been lost to antiquity, but his accounts of his time with Midoriko have survived for posterity. This scroll is from his personal accounts."

Miroku rested his head on Sango shoulder and he flashed a mischievous smile. She fumed silently, but did not shrug him off. He took this as an encouraging sign.

He reached out, making sure that his fingers brushed lightly down her arm as he did so, he heard her breath catch. Smiling he pointed to something on the scroll.

"This here. It doesn't look like a journal entry it looks more like a genealogy."

The old monk nodded. "That's because it is, a very brief one. It took me years to track down the source for this entry. I will show you that after this. It will be very enlightening."

"Whose genealogy is it?" Sango asked, somewhat breathless. Miroku smirked and the hand hidden behind her lazily started caressing her back.

"Why Midoriko's of course."

She sucked in a breath. "But even the village never had record of her lineage."

"As I said, took me years to find. It was very well hidden."

Miroku sensed a story behind that and as much as he would have liked to indulge the old monk they were getting off topic.

"What does all this have to do with Lord Toyotomi?"

Manabu settled in and started pointing out various parts of the scroll.

"It doesn't really, at least not directly. It might, however, shed some light on the some of the things that have been happening in Toyotomi's lands for the last century."

Miroku frowned and exchanged a confused look with Sango.

"Perhaps you should explain." He nodded.

"The rumors have been around for years about people that suddenly vanish from their homes, usually young women and children but strangely that is all that the stories have been; simply rumors. Few people born in the southern lands ever leave and those few that have usually don't remember much of their time there. It's as if they are blank slates waiting to be filled.

The story I am going to tell you, however, goes back much further and I believe that it is at the root of the unnatural occurrences that have plague the people of the south. Long before Priestess Midoriko's became the priestess of legend she was apprenticed, as many young shrine maidens were, to a priestess of remarkable power. Her name has also been lost, or overshadowed by Midoriko, but it is not important.

What is important are the events that occurred surrounding the apprentice. Midoriko was sent on a mission of peace to the warring Shogunates, along with two other maidens from her shrine. Toyotomi was one of the clans, the other was Ashigawa. The southern lands were in misery and poverty and starvation was rampant amongst the people. The apprentices were bringing food and healing arts to the ease the suffering and disease.

On the way to the lands the maidens were set upon by bandits. You must understand, Midoriko, at this time, had not come into her full power nor was she the formidable warrior she was to become. The bandits set upon them raping and killing her sisters. When it was her turn she fought them, and would have also lost her chastity and her life had not a monk happened upon them.

He was able to fight the bandits off and he saved Midoriko from the fate that had befallen her comrades. The young priestess was unwilling to give up her mission, despite what had happened, and the monk pledged his protection to her. She accepted and together they made their way into the southern lands.

Upon arriving they beheld a blood soaked battle field covered in a choking demonic aura the likes of which they had never felt. It seemed to be feeding on the souls of the dead, growing denser, stronger.

Here is where the story gets fuzzy. The rest of the scrolls were lost and I've had to piece the rest together from other sources. As far as I have been able to ascertain, the nameless monk and the young priestess encountered a great evil. It is never named, never given form, it simply was. Through the combined efforts of Midoriko and the monk the evil was sealed away, but it was never completely banished."

"You think that it is this evil from so long ago that has corrupted the lands, don't you," Miroku stated. Manabu nodded.

"I do. The things I have come to believe fit the evidence. The strange aura, the memory loss, the missing children, they are symptoms that were seen in the past."

"Is it a demon?" Sango asked. The old monk turned thoughtful.

"I think for the sake of simplicity we can see it as such, but as far as its actual form, well it is hard to say. The texts I have collected only call it evil."

Miroku stilled and his thoughts wander to things that he'd not known prior to his travels. He had learned that many religions had concepts of evil. For Christians evil was personified by the fallen angel Lucifer and his armies of the damned. The sultan, with whom he and father Manuel had spent a brief few days with; thanks to the misunderstanding in regards to his harem, told him that evil was simply part of the divine plan of Allah and in his wisdom all things, good and bad, are part of his preordained design.

These concepts, however, were abstract and based on unsubstantiated belief and faith. Miroku had nothing against faith, but after fighting his way across Japan for the better part of his life, battling demons and Naraku, evil without substance was hard to fear.

Only one man in his travels had ever really spooked him and that was because he'd experienced the phenomenon for himself. He and Father Manuel had accompanied the first mate and a few of the sailors when they went ashore to trade with African tribesmen off the coast of West Africa. While there, they were invited to spend the night in the village.

As honored guests, the headman allowed the first mate, Father Manuel, and Miroku to witness an attempt at purification or as Father Manuel deemed it, an exorcism. A teenage boy had been declared a witch after being caught having carnal relations with his sister.

The witch doctor had caught the boy and a purification ritual was scheduled. The young man, however, refused to reveal the part of his body were the essence of witchcraft was hidden and because his family was wealthy and they could afford the cost of cremation, he was to be burned. When they went to retrieve him from the hut they'd sequestered him in, however, the boy had vanished without a trace and so had his sister.

Miroku found the whole affair unsettling. He had not missed the feel of the black aura choking the boy's spirit when he'd witnessed the attempt at purification, and he could not deny that something, be it spirit or demon, had infected the young man.

The witch doctor had told Father Manuel in broken Portuguese that witches were not uncommon, often they could be purified and regain their place in the tribe, others were not so lucky. He told them to beware if they saw the boy, for witches had the power to appear and disappear at will and they brought disease and sometimes even death.

The first mate reluctantly accepted the headman's invitation to stay in the village and that night a strange thing happened. Always a light sleeper, Miroku woke and found the teenager standing over Father Manuel murmuring strange words. He could see the aura from the boy dancing over his friend. Reacting on years of instinct, he called upon his own spiritual powers and threw up a barrier between Manuel and the boy.

The boy had grinned at him eerily, said something in a language he couldn't understand, and had vanished without a trace. Manuel had become very ill after they left the village and the first mate would have left him behind had not Miroku taken it upon himself to nurse the fat priest back to good health.

He eventually got better, but the monk had never forgotten the village and the strange aura surrounding the young man. It was one of the first times he'd encountered an intangible evil that he hadn't fully understood.

If what Manabu said was true, he and Sango were about to face something of a similar nature.

"Is there anything else you can tell us about this evil?" Sango asked, voicing the question that had taken root in Miroku's own mind.

"There is something, but first a question taijiya. What was your grandfather's name?"

Sango wondered why such a thing would matter but she answered.

"His name was Shako."

The old monk smiled, unrolled another scroll, and motioned the slayer closer. Sango bent forward.

"It is as I thought. You are of Midoriko's bloodline."

She gasped and turned wide eyes on him. "How is that possible?"

"Just because the priestess lived her life chaste did not mean her relatives followed the same path. You carry in you the blood of her relations and you are the third young woman I have met in my lifetime that can make such a claim."

Miroku frowned. "The third?" Manabu nodded.

"Yes, and I do not think that it is a coincidence that the other two were also traveling with your grandfather and your father. I didn't make the connection at the time because this scroll had not come into my possession, but I remember both women very well. They were both quite beautiful and remarkable in their own ways."

Miroku felt a chill traverse his spine.

"What were their names and what happened to them?"

"The woman who traveled with Miyatsu was called Suzu; she was a miko with impressive powers. She was renowned as a healer and the one who came here with your father, her name was Kyoko. She was a noble." He grew quiet for a moment and whispered.

"I do not know what happened to those women. Once they entered Toyotomi's lands…they never returned."


	20. Darkness and Light

**A/N: Lemon warning. You've been informed, so no whining.**

"_**Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."**_

_**William Shakespeare - MacBeth**_

Riko wasn't the kind of woman who scared easily. She'd survived crushing poverty, an abusive spouse, ogres, and a war, but never had she felt as frightened as she did now. Tatsuo had attacked both her and Isamu when they'd left her hut earlier today, and now she was deep in the forest that bordered the mountain village, tied to a thick tree trunk.

She shuddered slightly as she gazed across the dancing flames at her captor. He was on the ground, scratching out some sort of strange symbols in the dirt and his eyes…his eyes were obsidian and glowed like polished stones in the fire light. As if sensing her scrutiny Tatsuo looked up, licked his puffy lips, and leered at her before returning to his task.

He'd yet to say anything to her and for some reason it made her even more afraid than if he'd been chattering her ear off. A silent Tatsuo was an anomaly.

The forest itself was unusually quiet that night. The night sounds she'd come to associate with the mountain were absent and everything seemed cloaked in oppressive darkness, more oppressive than the time of day dictated.

Uneasy, cold, scared, hunger, and now desperately aware that she needed to pee, she shifted against the trunk and winced. The ropes were tight, biting into her flesh, and she'd inadvertently given herself friction burns.

Gathering her courage she called out.

"Hey Tatsuo you bastard, unless you want it to get really messy over here you need to let me go long enough to relieve myself."

Her captor paused and slowly lifted those soulless eyes, pinning her to the tree. She suddenly had the feeling that it might have been a bad idea to draw his attention. She blinked and in the half second it took for her eyes to close and open he was across the campsite, invading her personal space. She flinched and steeled herself when he grinned maliciously.

"We've been neglecting you, little lamb, how rude of us."

Riko swallowed her gasp but her eyes went wide. His voice…what had happened to his voice. It echoed…like there were multiple beings speaking all at once, instead of just one man.

"Tatsuo," she breathed. His bloodless lips pulled into a smile.

"No…at least, not anymore." He ran one finger over her pale cheek and she recoiled.

"Beautiful…for a human."

"W-What are you?"

"You may call us…legion, for we are many. We have been waiting for the human to use the amulet and now we will do as our master bids. We will call out to our brothers and sisters of this land and we will feast on the souls of the taijiya's people. Our master will grow strong. He will reclaim his proper place."

Riko pushed herself up against the trunk, trying to get as far away from this thing that wore Tatsuo's face as she could. Now that he was so close she could feel the choking black aura and she could smell his stink.

What she didn't know; couldn't know, was that the sulfuric stench that wafted from the possessed man was the cloying smell of brimstone.

"W-Who is this master and why; why would he do this?"

Legion glowed with pleasure. "He is and was and will come. He crawled from the primordial ooze at the dawn of time. He is everyone and no one. He is Evil. He exists, intangible; formless. He will have shape, we will give him form. He will collect the scattered pieces of his essence, and he will rule this world and the next."

"I don't understand."

Legion didn't answer; he pushed away from the trunk and returned to his task beyond the flames.

"The hunter's moon approaches. When the moon is full and glows blood red and the time of the hunt is upon us; we will feast on the souls of the villagers. It will be glorious," he said, and bent to the earth once more.

Riko felt fear crush her soul and she started struggling against her bonds. She needed to get out of here and warn the others. She paused and took a breath, forcing herself to calm down and think. She wiggled her fingers, testing the give of the ropes and found none. Frustrated, she tried to twist her body to try and create some space, but again she was unable to pull the knots lax.

It looked like she was stuck there until that thing untied her. Riko turned towards her captor and noticed that whatever he'd been drawing in the dirt was now complete. He stood in the middle of the symbols, facing away from her and he was chanting in a language she'd never heard.

She felt her skin prickle with goose bumps. The air that swirled around had grown dangerously chilled and the wind was starting to pick up.

Riko started to struggle in earnest when she saw the earth inside Tatsuo's circle start to pulse and glow.

She almost jumped right out of her skin when someone touched her arm. She whipped her head around and almost passed out from the relief that flooded through her.

"Isamu, InuYasha," she whispered, her gaze going from one man to the other.

The ronin placed a finger to his lips, indicating that she needed to remain silent, and pulled a dagger from his belt. Deftly he worked the razor sharp blade under the ropes and sawed through the bounds. After a few moments she was free.

Quietly and swiftly Isamu grabbed her arm to pull her away, but she stayed them.

"Wait. We need to stop him. I don't know what he's doing but he told me he's going to destroy the village."

The ronin's face turned mutinous and he pulled her close enough to hiss in her ear.

"No! We have you now and getting you to safety is our priority."

A warm tingle went through her at his words and the feeling behind them but she was shaking her head 'no.' He gave her a fierce look.

"Dammit Riko, don't do this. Come now." She glared at him and his expression softened.

"Please," he begged.

She parted her lips to reply, but InuYasha's low growl interrupted them. They turned to him. He was tense and staring and if he'd truly been a dog, his hair would be standing on end and his hackles would be up. As it was, the barest hit of fang flashed when his lips curled.

"We shouldn't stay. I don't like this. It feels wrong."

Isamu looked from Riko to InuYasha and cursed. He looked back towards Tatsuo. The ground was glowing so brightly now that it was blinding and a rumble had started deep within the earth. Riko and Isamu both stumbled, but InuYasha kept his balance.

Making a split second decision the ronin grabbed Riko's arm and pulled her way. She protested and tried to pull free but he simply held her tighter. InuYasha gripped his sword tightly and backed away swiftly, never taking his eyes off of Tatsuo. He didn't turn until the other man was well out of sight.

Riko was trying to go back. "No, you don't understand! He said he was going to destroy the village! We have to find out what he's doing."

Isamu wrapped his arms around her and whispered fiercely in her ear.

"It won't matter what we find out if we're dead. I will not let you get hurt. I will not let you die, even if I have to force you to protect yourself."

She stilled in his arms and looked at him, shock and something indefinable in her eyes. InuYasha growled again, louder this time, and they turned. He pointed to the horizon.

"Look."

The stopped fighting each other and followed his hand.

"Sweet Kami," Isamu croaked.

On the horizon the moon had been blacked out by the hundreds upon hundreds of demons surging towards the light that rose through the trees.

Shaken, he said. "Let's get out of here."

InuYasha nodded, knowing that retreat was the better option and this time Riko did not protest when Isamu urged her away.

The needed to get back to the village but the hanyou couldn't help but glance over his shoulder one last time.

They were about to be in for one hell of a fight.

* * *

Miroku and Manabu were still deep in conversation when Sango left them to take advantage of the natural hot springs near the temple. She sank low into the water, watching as it lapped gently at her breasts, and let her mind review all they'd learned from the monk.

She was kin to Midoriko, the thought was almost too much to comprehend. She sighed and tried to relax and let the hot water sooth her, but she was much too tense. Miroku's playful and flirtations mood had vanished once they'd gotten deeper into conversation with the old man and he'd even tried to forbid her to walk off on her own when she'd told them that she was going to the hot springs.

She had told him in no uncertain terms that she was not some weak willed damsel that needed constant supervision, nor was she a child. She was a warrior, born of a warrior clan, and she could take care of herself.

They'd had a fight and she could still feel her anger licking at her belly. She knew that what Manabu had said about those other women had spooked him but really, after all this time, he should know better.

One of the reason's she'd fallen so hard for the hentai monk was because he always treated her as his equal. When they fought side by side he trusted her prowess and ability to hold her own against even the most powerful foe and she'd always loved that about him.

If he thought just because she'd shared her body with him that he'd be able to be dictatorial now, well he'd better re-think that ridiculous notion.

She blinked and groaned when her mind latched on to the one part of that thought that she didn't want to think about right now.

She'd made love with Miroku. Thinking about it turned the anger to heat and made her breasts tingle. Kami, she was an idiot. He was going to leave and now it was going to be that much harder to watch him walk away. She slumped deeper into the water.

She couldn't lie to herself, it had been her choice, and in all honesty she didn't regret her decision to taste heaven with him. She blushed, and boy had it been heavenly. He knew just how to touch her to set her nerve endings ablaze and when he…with his tongue…sweet Kami; she needed to stop before she became so aroused she wouldn't know what to do with herself.

Sango was so lost in her heated memories that she didn't realize that she wasn't alone any longer until she heard the splash. Her eyes shot up and she immediately squealed and crossed her arms over her private places underneath the crystal clear water.

Miroku's indigo eyes were black with desire and he smirked at her.

"Dammit, you lecherous houshi, what are you doing here?" She hissed.

"Taking a bath," he said, innocently. Her eyes narrowed and then she blushed bright red. He was standing before her in all his glory and she couldn't help but notice that he was already…excited. Damn that man, he had absolutely no shame.

He smiled knowingly when he saw the direction of her gaze and she turned away, mortified.

She sensed, rather than saw, him move and a moment later he was behind her, resting her back against his nicely muscled chest. She sucked in a breath when he pushed her unbound hair aside and whispered in her ear.

"See something you like, taijiya?"

"Pervert," she growled, but it lacked her usual censor. He responded by gently nipping the back of her neck, she felt the contact like a bolt of lighting down her spine and she rubbed her thighs together. Her breasts weren't the only place tingling now.

"You know," he said, conversationally. "There was a reason I always tried to take a peek at you while you were bathing. The thought of you in my arms, wet and deliciously naked, was another of my most cherished fantasies, and now to have the reality…well, let us say that the reality is beyond compare."

Sango felt his words like a verbal caress and her nipples puckered. He'd yet to do more than simply fold his hands over her taut stomach and rain butterfly kisses against the sensitive skin of her neck, but she already felt as if she were burning up.

Her resistance gone she snuggled back against him, bringing their bodies into closer contact, and she was gratified to hear him moan when the curves of her ass brushed his sex. Feeling mischievous, she wiggled her hips again, and felt it slide between the grooves of her cheeks. He made some sort of low, needy sound that thrilled her in a very feminine, very sexual way.

"Vixen," he murmured and trailed kisses from her pulse point, up her neck, catching the shell of her ear between his lips, and sucking lightly; she gasped. His hands on her abdomen were caressing the pale skin with light circles, going up her rib cage and down again, but never straying towards her now aching breasts.

Sango rested her hands over his and moved her backside again, this time involuntarily. He growled.

"M-Miroku," she breathed. She turned her head blindly towards him and he caught her soft lips in a deep, luxurious kiss. His tongue parted her folds and coaxed hers to follow, to come and play. She responded with all the passion in her nature and the kiss became a dual of sorts.

_Kami, this man can kiss. _She thought hazily as her tongue swirled around his. His hands slipped up her ribcage again and this time he didn't stopped until he'd cupped her breast. Sango shivered. She still had her hands resting on top of his and it was incredibly erotic to feel the strong joints under her fingers contract as he gently kneaded her flesh.

She moaned low in her throat and Miroku started moving his un-cursed hand downward towards the junction of her thighs. She arched against him when his fingers slipped between her folds and started a slow, steady rhythm against her clit.

He was still kissing her. Sango keened into his mouth and panted as his hand created wicked sensations throughout her body. The longer he tormented her, the closer she came to that precipice where light and sound converged and she became a senseless puddle of awareness and feeling. She was about to go over when he suddenly stopped. She whimpered and he chuckled against her lips.

"Not yet, my beautiful Sango."

"Miroku," she whined and then flushed in embarrassment. She never whined; it was so…weak. He chuckled again and turned her in his arms so she was straddling his hips. He bent his dark head and took one of her nipples in his mouth. She gasped, arched her back, and pressed the supple flesh deeper into his hot orifice.

Her hands, in the meantime started running over his chest, along his shoulders, and over his back. She started rocking her hips, grinding her core against his waiting erection. Miroku hissed and then groaned.

"Gods taijiya, the things you do to me."

He suddenly stood, lifting them out of the water and Sango instinctively wrapped her long legs around his waist. She started kissing his neck and then suddenly bit down lightly on the pulse point. Miroku staggered, but kept his balance.

She smiled, a wholly pleased female smile and dropped a kiss on his jutting chin.

"You must really, really want me bad," she whispered. He growled and managed to get them to the bank, but instead of lowering her down on her back, he sat down so that she was still on top.

She gazed at him in confusion.

"Miroku?" He leaned up and whispered hotly in her ear.

"I want you to ride me Sango. I want to see you take me deep inside your body and take your pleasure from mine."

She blushed scarlet and gazed at him with suddenly shy eyes. It had been fun teasing him a little earlier, but now she was once again reminded that it was Miroku who had the experience in this area, not her, and she was suddenly afraid that she wouldn't be good enough to satisfy him.

"M-Miroku I d-don't know…what if I'm n-no good at it?"

Miroku lightly ran his hands up and down her bare arms in a comforting gesture.

"You'll be fine, my Sango. Anything you do to me is guaranteed to bring me pleasure. Trust me when I say I have no doubt that both of us will enjoy this immensely."

Still unsure, but finding that she was excited about the chance to take control of their coupling, she gently eased him down on his back. He complied happily, resting his hands lightly on her hips. Sango lifted herself up a little and looked down where his straining member stood at attention between their bodies. Gently she took him in hand causing him to moan and guided him to her entrance.

When she felt the tip penetrate she closed her eyes, moved her hand, and sat down very slowly. She moaned deep in her throat. It felt different this way, fuller and she bit her lip as she took him in to the hilt. She opened her eyes and meet Miroku's, who was looking at her a bit dazed.

Instinctively she rocked her hips and gasped at the jolt that fired her loins. She did it again and again, until she found herself bracing herself with her feet wrapped around his shins and using her powerful thighs to pull herself up and down.

Miroku's cries of encouragement and ecstasy spurred her on and soon she was bouncing up and down on him at a steady pace.

"K-Kami," she whispered and moaned when he hit a particularly sensitive spot inside her. She tried the same motion again and this time the moan became a scream. Miroku, unable to be idle when she was above him riding him like a wonton sex goddess, grabbed her hips and started lifting his own to meet her.

"Ahhh Ahh Ahh," she yelled and he felt her inner muscles ripple over his engorged flesh.

"Sango!" He yelled and came hard. She was still riding him and her orgasm was still pulsing around his now softening member. Slowly, they came down from their high and Sango collapsed against him, keeping him inside her.

She couldn't believe how weak she felt. Her thighs were quivering like they did on those days when she spent hours practicing with Hiraikotsu and she felt boneless. Miroku wiped her wet hair away from her brow and kissed her forehead, and then her nose, and finally he brushed a soft, feather light kiss over her full lips.

"Beautiful," he whispered and she sighed. She shut her eyes tightly and felt her heart clench. _Kami, how am I going to let him go? _She thought and felt tears prick. She choked them back.

Miroku was moving and she lifted her head reluctantly. He smiled softly and ran his un-cursed hand down her cheek.

"Come on, let's get cleaned off. We need to get back to the temple. It's almost dark." She nodded and pushed her weight off him gingerly. She watched him stand and felt the crushing sensation in her chest again.

She didn't say anything. She simply got back into the spring with him, finished bathing, dressed, and headed back to the temple, all the while wondering how badly her heart was going to break when he was gone.

She kept wondering until the reached the temple and Miroku bid her goodnight at the door to the room she was going to sleep in. She wondered until in a blazing moment of clarity she realized that the damage was already done. Her broken heart was inevitable.

What mattered now was how she spent the time in between. Before she could think about it, she grabbed Miroku and kissed him hard and desperate. He was shocked for a moment but soon responded, allowing her to lead him into her room.

"Sango?"

She shook her head. "Sorry houshi, but if you think you are going to let me sleep alone you've got another thing coming."

He smiled, slow and sensual, kissed her, and murmured.

"I would hate to disappoint you, my love."


	21. Warriors and Idiots

**A/N: Another Lemon near the bottom. Enjoy if you want, skip if you don't want.**

"_**This is blood for blood and by the gallon. These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left. And I'm ready for war."**_

_**Sin City - Marv**_

InuYasha, Kagome, Riko, and Isamu were all gathered in front of Riko's hut with the other members of the village. InuYasha was gripping the handle of his sword tightly and he could feel his temper rising. Ever since they'd return the villagers had been squabbling amongst themselves and dammit they didn't have time for this shit. Tatsuo and that horde could be here at anytime and they needed to start preparing to defend themselves. Isamu was trying to get everyone to calm down and listen for five seconds, but he wasn't having much luck. The villagers were divided into two camps, those who had followed Sango from the Western lands, and those who'd come later.

The latter were the ones that Tatsuo's back biting and griping had influenced the most, thankfully there were not as many of them as the former. Jun, one of the younger hot heads who'd listened to Tatsuo said.

"How do we know you're telling us the truth? I mean it was just you, the healer, and that damn hanyou in the forest and you just expect us to buy this crap? Well, I don't believe it."

His friend Seiji seconded his opinion.

"I agree with Jun. You have no proof that Tatsuo is possessed, much less that he killed his wife."

Hana and her husband Eiji both stepped up to stand next to Isamu in a unified show of supporting him. Hana said.

"You saw Mia's body! She was torn to pieces and Tatsuo was seen going into the hut. What more proof do you need?"

Seiji scoffed. "Could have been the hanyou in disguise."

Hotaka, another young man who was probably the next best demon slayer next to Sango, replied.

"That's ridiculous Seiji. First off, InuYasha would never do something like that, and second, we know he doesn't have that kind of power. If he had we'd have seen it before now. Besides this is foolish; if what they are telling us is true then we are wasting time arguing amongst ourselves. We need to prepare the village for defense."

Mika, a shy girl in her mid-teens glanced at Hotaka, blushed, and stammered.

"H-Hotaka is r-right. W-We n-need to prepare. I-I was only t-thirteen when the wars started b-but I r-remember what happened t-to my village. I-I d-don't want the s-same thing to happen h-here."

The handsome demon slayer gave the pretty teenager a warm smile and she blushed even more.

Yukiko, Seiji's wife, looked down her nose at the girl in disdain. Hotaka bristled and instinctively went to stand in front of her. Yukiko smirked.

"My husband and Jun are the only sane people left in this rabble. Lord Tatsuo is an honorable man, a man who warned us time and again that the filthy half-breed was dangerous."

InuYasha tensed and Kagome closed her hand on his forearm, staying him. The miko's calming affect helped ease the tension, but it had did not dissipate completely. Yukiko continued on as if nothing were amiss.

"I do not believe Master Tatsuo would murder his wife nor do I believe all this nonsense about him being possessed."

"Then you are a fool," Riko spat, coming unsteadily to her feet. Isamu saw her wobble and immediately went to her side and placed a supporting hand under her elbow. He frowned and she met his intense, concerned gaze briefly before turning back to the idiotic female. A light flush stained her cheeks and it was in direct contrast to the glare she aimed at Yukiko.

"Even if you bakas don't believe InuYasha and Isamu you should believe me. I did not imagine that I was kidnapped by that man, nor did I dream the ugly darkness in his eyes. I saw him call the demons. He will attack us at the full moon, some three days hence. We must prepare…or we will die."

Jun grunted and jeered, "Lies, all pretty lies to make Master Tatsuo look the villain and to save the disgusting half-breed's skin."

This time Kagome was unable to restrain the hanyou. He growled and shot to his feet.

"You're a fucking moron. I wasn't even in the damned village when Mia died. I was with Kagome and we…fuck. I don't give a rat's ass that you don't believe me. Hell, the way I'm feeling right now you can go into the forest and get eaten and I don't think I'd feel a flicker of remorse. But I will be damned if I let you put the rest of these people in danger. Mostly because if I don't do something to stop this shit, Kagome will never forgive me, but also because I fought with some of these people and for weak humans they ain't half bad. Now we've got three days tops to make this place a fortress and to get all the help we can, because believe me. Tatsuo is coming with a shit load of demons and he ain't gonna stop until every last thing is this place is dead. So you either follow me…or you die. Simple choice."

Silence reigned for about two minutes and then the villagers started shouting at each other. Most of them wanted to do as InuYasha had suggested, but the rest of them were still spouting nonsense about Tatsuo. He threw up his hands in disgust. Suddenly a weak cry sounded. InuYasha, due to his sensitive hearing, was the only one to hear it. He turned and cursed loud enough to shock the villagers into silence.

They turned almost as one to see what had captured the hanyou's attention and saw the boy stumbling towards them. It was Tatsuo's son, Shuji.

"Shuji!" Eri cried, and ran to her nephew, pulling him into her arms. He gazed at her as if he didn't recognize her; his arms remaining limp at his sides. She pulled back confused and scared by his lack or reaction.

"Shuji?"

He still said nothing. Eri felt hysteria bubble inside her.

"Riko!" She cried. "Oh Kami Riko, what's wrong with him!?"

The healer ran to the older woman and bent down so she could examine the boy. He was looking at her with dull, disinterested eyes. She'd seen that look before, or course, nearly two years ago during the war. Some of the soldiers and victims of the ogres had this same look. Kagome called it shell shock or sometimes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The boy had all the symptoms and Riko had a pretty good idea why.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the boy spoke in a dead voice.

"Papa killed mommy."

A collective gasp could be heard behind her and the murmuring started anew. She ignored them and turned to Eri.

"Come, we must get him to the convalescence hut. I need to check him over and make sure he wasn't injured physically."

Mentally she already knew the boy was a wreck.

Eri nodded fearfully, scooped her nephew into her arms, and started towards the hut, but before she followed the healer she turned to the crowd.

"I suggest you all listen to InuYasha and Isamu now."

The silence that fell was deafening as the villagers watched her walk away. Isamu brought their attention back to the matter at hand.

"All right, we have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. Hotaka I want an inventory done of all usable weapons in the store house. Eiji, go with Aoi, and walk the perimeter of the village. I want to know which parts of the walls you deem the weakest."

Jun and Seiji stepped forward looking ashamed.

"What can we do?" Jun asked quietly. Isamu looked at them hard.

"Pray."

* * *

Later that night Kagome found InuYasha in Sango's hut. He was looking at the picture album she'd given the slayer a few months ago. She walked in softly and wasn't surprised when he said.

"You should be asleep." He still hadn't turned around. She smiled softly, shrugged, and made her way towards him, sitting down right next to him on the floor.

"I can't sleep. Too wired I guess."

"Keh," he scoffed, softly. She smiled wider.

"How about you? How come you're not asleep?" He snorted.

"I don't need to sleep as much as you weak humans." She playfully hit him on the shoulder and he frowned.

"I swear InuYasha sometimes you are just so…so infuriating!" He grunted again and turned the page. Kagome bent closer to him so she could look and pointed.

"Hey, I remember that one! That was the day Miroku got caught peeping into the girls' bath in that village near Kaede's. Boy; was Sango pissed."

InuYasha didn't say anything and she looked up about to ask him why and suddenly froze. She was inches from his face and his golden eyes had gone molten.

"InuYasha," she whispered, needy. His breath hitched.

"Kagome," he growled, low and just a bit husky. She sighed and placed her hand against his cheek.

"Why do you keep fighting it?" He didn't have to ask her what it was, he knew.

"Because I…" _I'm afraid of loving you, hurting you, loosing you. _"I-I just do."

She smiled indulgently and bent forward to brush her lips, feather light, against his. He groaned.

"Kagome…don't"

She responded by moving so she was straddling his hips and she ran her small hands over the fabric of his robes. He shifted, bringing her closer, and growled.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She smiled again. "I'm seducing you. Can't you tell?"

"Kagome," he warned. She placed one finger over his lips.

"I'm not some scared fifteen year old girl anymore, InuYasha, and I know what I want. I want to make love with you. I want it more than anything I've ever wanted in my whole life."

He closed his eyes against her plea, knowing that if he looked at her, he'd never be able to refuse her.

"I can't mate you, Kagome. You have no idea how much I want…I can't." She wiggled her hips involuntarily and he groaned as his body started to harden. He could feel the heat of her core through her jeans.

"You can. I want you. Please." It was the closest she would come to begging him. He snarled and put his hands on her upper arms to push her away, but he found he couldn't. When she reached up and gently rubbed her fingers over one of his ears, he rumbled deep in his chest.

Kami, how he wanted her, but if he took her there would be no going back for him. She would own him, body and soul. Strangely, that thought didn't frighten him as much as he thought it would. She continued caressing his ears, moving to the other one, and the last of his resistance snapped. He had to have her…right now.

He roared and she yelped as he stood and carried her over to the futon in the corner, and tumbled them both down to it. He pinned her with his body and her eyes went wide.

"You should be careful what you wish for."

Her momentary panic subsided and she kissed the tip of his nose.

"Does this mean you're going to stop being an idiot?"

He growled and her blood turned to liquid heat in her veins. He bent his head into the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply, gently nipping the skin there. She jumped and gasped and he smoothed his tongue over the small red mark. Kagome's chest was heaving, her breathing getting heavier.

"I-InuYasha?" He nipped up the line of her throat and caught her ear between his teeth, running his tongue along the shell. She arched into him, her vision blurring. He'd smelled the spike in her scent and smirked at the discovery.

"Sensitive there, are we?"

Kami she really was. Who would have thought her ears had a direct line to her groin. He lavished them again and she mewled.

"InuY-Yasha…please."

She didn't know what she was begging for; just that she needed something from him. He was turning her whole body into a molten inferno. Through lust glazed eyes she could see the pale column of his throat stretched out before her and feeling bold she nipped him there, very lightly, with blunt teeth.

He froze and growled, dangerous and feral. She felt a shiver of apprehension.

"InuYasha?"

He pushed himself up enough so he could meet her eyes and she gasped at what she saw. His golden orbs almost glowed.

"Do that again and you better be prepared for what you unleash," he whispered. Kagome's eyes went wide and her nerves started to jump. She vaguely remembered that the act of biting a youkai on the neck could very well get someone killed, but she was having trouble remembering how the same theory applied to mating. With reckless abandon she nipped him again, wondering who the hell this too bold girl was and what she'd done with Kagome. InuYasha rumbled and grabbed both her hands and trapped them above her head at an angle that was a bit painful.

She winced and gasped when he swiftly ran a claw down the front of her t-shirt, ripping it. The look in his eyes was half wild and she squirmed, wondering what she'd gotten herself into. He sniffed the air appreciatively and buried his head against her neck again. His words were muffled when he spoke.

"Do you have any idea what biting does to a demon? You're playing with fire Kagome."

She responded by taking one of his fuzzy ears between her lips, sucking lightly, while she ran her small pink tongue along the sensitive membrane. He jerked his hips against her, rubbing his erection against her thigh. She released him and moaned.

He blindly lifted his head and took her lips, capturing that little tongue between his lips and sucking on it. She groaned and kissed him back. He released her and kissed a path down her neck to her breasts. He glared at the functional white bra shielding her soft globes.

"If you don't want to lose anymore clothing, you had better take this off." She smiled, languidly and tugged her wrists.

"You have to release my hands first."

He pouted and did so grudgingly, allowing her to unclasp the bra and toss it aside. He shrugged out of his hitoe and kosode, also tossing them were her bra landed. Her eyes lit up and she tentatively ran her hands over his chest, lightly scrapping the flat nipples with her nails. He growled again and bent his head to take her rosy areole into his mouth.

She bucked against him and fisted her hands in his silver hair, holding him to her breast. His hair spilled over her stomach, cloaking them and he gently dragged the tip of his fangs over the sensitive nub, soothing the motion with his tongue.

Kagome felt like a flash bang had gone off behind her eyes, all she saw was white. She moaned and whimpered and bucked under him, rubbing her jean encased legs up and down his. He sucked hard on her nipple and sweet Kami she almost came right then and there.

She was panting hard, and wondering how she could get so much pleasure just from him suckling her tits? When he moved his mouth to the other straining bud, all coherent thought deserted her. He moved his hand up her ribcage, claws scrapping gently, and wrapped his hand around her bereft globe, kneading like a kitten. Kagome responded by rubbing her leg against his encased manhood. He gasped.

"Not playing fair."

She was beyond speech so her response was to repeat the motion. He groaned and abruptly released her. She whimpered at the loss, but was soon rewarded. He pushed himself up on his knees and undid the ties of his hakama. She blushed when his erection sprang free and he lay back down next to her, kicking his pants free. She responded by working the button of her jeans free, pulling down the zipper, and pushing the tight denim down her shapely legs.

She lay before him in only a slip of virginal cotton panties; he growled in approval and traced a claw around her belly button. She sucked in a breath. Eyes languid she moved one of her small hands down his chest, over his abdomen, and gently took his throbbing member in her hands, rubbing up and down the length.

He almost howled. She swallowed hard. She had no idea what had come over her but the longer she looked at him the stronger the urge became. Following her instincts she shimmied down the futon, urged him on his back, and took him between her petal soft lips.

This time he did howl.

"Kami…Kagome!"

She couldn't speak with her mouth full so she said nothing. In the back of her mind she couldn't believe she was doing this. Of course she'd read about such things in fiction novels but she'd never thought she'd be doing it, to InuYasha. She was also a little nervous. He was…rather well endowed, not that she had experience with such things, but still.

InuYasha was in heaven. He closed his eyes and thrust involuntarily upwards as her lips skimmed over him. Her hot wet mouth felt like nothing he'd ever experienced, but he knew that he needed to stop her. Tugging lightly on her hair to get her attention she released him with a tiny pop. He took the opportunity to pull her back up next to him.

"InuYasha? D-Did I do something wrong?"

He was panting. "No, I just wouldn't have been able to hold it together if I let you keep doing that to me."

She blushed and ducked under her hair. "O-Oh"

He titled her chin up, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"It felt fantastic, Kagome. I just…when I come I want it to be inside of you."

She blushed darker and murmured. "O-Oh…I um…"

He smirked and kissed her, and she opened to him with a sigh. He pulled away and gazed at her tenderly.

"This is going to hurt for a moment. Are you sure you still want this? Want me?"

The look in his golden eyes made her heart ache and Kagome gingerly ran her fingers over his cheek bones, smoothing away the look.

_So much pain, _she thought. _It's so unfair._

"I want you," she whispered and nipped his lips. He groaned and in one swift thrust he entered her. Kagome cried out and her body stiffened. Whimpering, he nuzzled her neck and ignored the roar in his demonic blood that commanded him to pound unmercifully into her. He fought his instincts and let her adjust to the feel of him inside her. Kagome bit her lip. It had hurt but the pain was fading and she marveled at the feel of him cradled inside her body. It felt…incredible.

"I-InuYasha?" He nipped her throat and she gasped.

"Yes," he replied, his voice raw.

"Y-You c-can move now…I-I mean…it doesn't…"

He felt more then saw her turn bright red. With a growl of longing he bucked his hips, sliding deeper inside her. She gasped and experimentally pushed back. He groaned loud and long.

Pushing himself up on his forearms he met her eyes and she wrapped her legs around his hips, giving him better access. His gaze never wavering he started thrusting deep inside her and all she could do was look deep into his eyes and hang on to his shoulders for dear life.

The intimacy of it all took her breath away. She felt pinned by his eyes and she could see every emotion as it swirled in their depths. She was sure hers were just as open to him and Kami the feel of him! She moaned and gasped and he pumped into her faster, harder.

She was far form idle; undulating her hips to meet his.

""Kagome," he growled. She pushed against him more desperately. She could feel the tight pleasure building low in her abdomen and she knew she would simply die if she didn't reach her destination. Their movements become frantic and out of sync as they moved faster, went higher. Kagome felt as if she was hyperventilating and the whole time he was joined with her, he never looked away from her eyes.

She knew he saw the explosion take place in her face before he felt her inner muscles sliding and contracting around him. With two final thrusts he howled as he spilled deep inside her, the emotions playing lightening fast across his face.

He collapsed against her, his silken hair draped over her breasts and his nose buried in her neck. He rolled her then, keeping himself inside her and tucking her against him while he nibbled at her chin and brushed feather light caresses against her skin.

She shifted when she felt him soften and blushed.

"W-Well that was…"

He grinned against her and nipped the hollow of her throat.

"Yeah."

She squirmed and he groaned, her eyes going suddenly wide when she felt his member start to harden again.

"A-Already?"

He rolled them so that she was straddling him. She moaned as he shifted. He bucked his hips causing her to moan again.

"That's the great thing about being a half-demon. We have a LOT of stamina."

As she rode him to bliss she had the half formed notion that it was a very good thing he did.


	22. The Demon's Lair

"_**When was having sex or not having sex not a problem?"**_

_**Playing by Heart - Joan**_

Many hours later Kagome lay nestled against InuYasha's chest, her dark locks mixing with his silver as she gently caressed his pectorals; he was doing the same with the hand that had come to rest possessively at her hip.

She tilted her head up so she could meet his eyes and smiled warmly.

"You weren't kidding about the stamina. I'll be lucky if I can walk tomorrow."

He smirked, a little too self-satisfied for her comfort. She responded by pinching him. He yelped.

"Oi wench. What was that for?"

"Your ego was showing. I felt the need to tame it."

He grumbled but held her closer; she sighed and melted against him. They were quiet once more. Biting her lip she wondered if she should bring up what she'd been thinking as she lay here in his arms. She wasn't sure what his reaction would be and it would be a shame to ruin this nice afterglow.

She chanced a glance at him; he never been this relaxed in the all the time she'd known him. She worried her lip harder. She was loathed to cause tension between them now, but she had to know.

"InuYasha," she began, hesitant.

Yeah."

She cleared her throat. "Where do we go from here? I mean…we're mated now, right? I just wondered what…" She took a deep breath and gathered her courage. "I wondered what that means to you."

He stiffened slightly and made to pull away from her but she clamped her arms around his waist. She felt moisture sting her eyes but she refused to cry.

"No! No way buster! You are not going to run away from me now, not after we…"

He sighed and she felt it through her entire body and when he relaxed and gathered her close again she felt relief flood her. He started running a soothing had up and down her spine. She almost purred.

The turmoil her question had churned up in his gut hadn't left him and the need to flee was strong, but looking down at her and seeing the sheen of tears on her lashes he knew he couldn't leave her. Feeling her silky skin rubbing against his he cursed himself a fool. What did it mean now they were mated?

_Mine, _his mind screamed. _It means your mine!_

But he couldn't tell her that. Kami, he didn't know what he was going to say to her.

He settled with.

"I don't know, Kagome. I've never…" _loved anyone the way I love you._

She sighed, slightly disappointed, but not enough to pull away from him.

"It's okay, InuYasha."

And it was, at least for now. If this was all he could give her right now, then she would take it. After all, it was more than they had before. Skimming her hand down his abdomen she wrapped her slim fingers around his member and stroked. He sucked in a ragged breath and rolled her under him, kissing her fiercely.

_It's enough for now, _her hazy mind added. Her heart…well, it disagreed, but she was willing to take the risk.

She just hoped her gamble paid off in the long run.

* * *

Sango walked through the village towards the mountain where she could see the outline of a magnificent castle and felt colder than she ever had in her life. A quick glance at Miroku confirmed that he was feeling just as uneasy about their surrounds as she was.

The villagers were watching them. It was almost eerie how closely, but where most would be whispering or commenting on the two strangers walking through their village, there was instead, dead silence. She suppressed a shudder.

The expressionless faces around her reminded Sango of the time Kagome had brought a portable picture box from her time. They watched something called a movie on it. Kagome said the name of the movie was Village of the Damned.

The people around her reminded her of those children, emotionless…dead

She instinctively shifted closer to Miroku and was pleased to note that the monk had done the same.

"What's wrong with them, houshi?"

He shook his head, frowning.

"I don't know, but the aura we felt yesterday is getting stronger."

She nodded and her hand tightened on Hiraikotsu's strap. They had reached the edge of Toyotomi's lands yesterday and the closer they got to the mountain his castle was nestled on, the stronger the choking aura of the place had become.

To their dismay it had the same feel as the aura that had possessed the kitsune they'd fought on the way.

"What's wrong with these people," she whispered. He narrowed his gaze and surveyed the village before responding.

"I don't know; it's as if…"

"…they have no souls," she finished for him. He nodded once and moved closer to her, his body language protective. She rolled her eyes but inside she was thrilled by the gesture. Not that she couldn't handle herself, it was just nice to be reminded how much he cared.

They continued on in silence and kept their guard up, unsure what to expect from these people. Even when the cleared the village they found they couldn't relax. The village gave way to eerie thick dark forests and they continued on the path.

"It's too quiet. How can it be this quiet?"

Miroku didn't say anything, she was right and it reminded him uncomfortably of another forest. They didn't speak for the rest of the way, each one too amped on adrenaline to waste time with idle conversation. It was almost anti-climatic when the broke through the forest and found themselves at the foot of a mountain.

They looked at the well worn path and back at each other. Miroku smiled.

"Ladies first."

She snorted. "Such a gentleman, you're going to feel bad if something eats me, you know."

A mischievous twinkle danced in his indigo orbs and he leaned forward to whisper in her ear. She sucked in a gasp and stifled a groan when she felt his hot breath on her skin.

"My beautiful Sango, the only thing that is allowed to eat you…is me, and I assure you that I will not let anyone or anything else have that pleasure."

The image of his dark head bobbing between her pale thighs flashed in her brain and she turned a shade of crimson that would turn the darkest cherry green with envy.

"Houshi…this is not the time for you to be perverted!"

He shrugged, unapologetic. "A leopard can't change its spots, and besides the thought is much more pleasant than the others I've had today."

She went even redder. "You are impossible."

"And you're turned on, but you're right, we can't do anything about it right now, but still…"

She yelped when his arm snaked out and wrapped around her waist. She had only a moment to wonder what he was doing when his lips crashed down on hers and his tongue plunged deep into her mouth.

He was practically raping her mouth and all she could do was moan and try to shimmy closer to him. When he pulled away she almost whimpered. He didn't look to steady either, but he was smiling.

"Ready to enter the demon's lair?"

"What?" She questioned, a bit stupidly.

"Toyotomi? Remember the Shogun?"

She'd shook herself when his words registered. Kami, he'd almost made her forget why they were about to climb up this damn mountain.

_That man's a drug, he should be illegal, _she groused.

"R-Right, let's go." She started forward and Miroku's smirk could have shamed the devil. Without turning around she bopped him on the head with Hiraikotsu. He stumbled back, a bit dazed by the blow.

"I saw that, houshi," she grumbled. Miroku's laughter chased her up the hill and she quickly brought her hand up to cover her own giggles. It was nice to let out some of the tension and he was still smiling when he caught up with her.

The lingering mirth, however, couldn't last, as the tension crept back into them. They were both tight as a bow string by the time the reached the gate. Sango stood there for a moment looking up at the intimidating structure and almost jumped when Miroku grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"Ready?" he whispered. She frowned and squeezed his hand back.

"As I'll ever be." She brought her free hand up and cupped it near her mouth, using it to project her voice.

"Hello the house."

A sentry came up to the gate, flanked by two others.

"Who goes there?"

"I am the taijiya Sango and this is my companion the monk Miroku. We have business with your master. He is expecting us."

The sentry narrowed his eyes but nodded curtly.

"The Lord told us you would be arriving. Come, we will see you to him."

Miroku squeezed her hand once more and let her go. She straightened her shoulders, nodded once, and prepared to enter.

_It begins, _she thought, just as the creaking gate swung open. Miroku and Sango exchanged a look and then both step forward into the lion's den.

She just hoped they both made it back out alive.

* * *

Isamu was worried. He watched critically as the villagers went about their various assigned tasks. A number of men were at the walls and he could hear the steady pounding of mallets as they fortified the supports. On the other side men, women, and a few children sat in a circle making arrows out of blessed youkai bones.

The projectiles were ten times as strong as wooden arrows and would better pierce the leathery hide of a demon. Others were seen moving supplies into store houses and fortifying the dwellings.

He couldn't help but think that it might not be enough. His gaze drifted to the group of men and women training together. They were the ones that had learned the art of war and demon slaying from him and Lady Sango. He frowned.

There weren't enough of them. His gaze turned towards the forest and the black mass withering beyond the horizon.

They were there, waiting. It was disconcerting and demoralizing and a fearful reminder that they were outnumbered almost ten to one.

They had InuYasha and Tetsusaiga, but even with the fang's awesome killing waves they still might not survive the upcoming battle.

To say that Isamu was not optimistic about their chances was a gross understatement. He was suddenly glad that Chie was safely tucked away with Lady Kaede, at least now he didn't have to worry about his only child. Still, it was only a small comfort.

How had it come to this? He had thought once the war was over that he might finally be able to put blood shed and death behind him, but it seemed that the gods had other plans for him. Isamu didn't often allow himself to look back on the path of his life. Chie and the future were the only things that mattered, but every so often he would find himself lost in his reflections.

"Arisu," he whispered and closed his eyes. His late wife, Kami how he missed her, and Chie looked and acted so much like her. His daughter had the same fire, the same strength. It was that spark that had first caught his attention before his disgrace. She'd been just a servant girl but she was so graceful, and courageous.

Although she was barely eighteen winters she had become the protector of the rest of the female servants, and many of the children. She was the one who challenged the palace guards when they got to grabby with the help and she was the one who took the brunt of the beatings.

He hadn't known what kind of master he served when he first met her, and he hadn't been able to figure out why she was so cold towards him, or why her eyes held such hatred for the samurai.

He, and two others, had been part of the dowry agreement for his new master's new bride. The marriage had been a political one, used to unit two rich, but small shogunates and increase their power, and Isamu's former master had been a wise and decent man.

He slowly learned that the shogun he'd come to serve was not wise, nor could he ever be considered decent by any stretch of the imagination. He'd first learned that particular lesson on the day he'd stopped some of his fellow samurai from whipping an old man who'd spilled the sake he'd be serving on the captain. Arisu had seen him do it and she'd also witness his fellow soldiers stripping him and whipping him in the servant's place.

She'd come to him that night to treat his lash marks, and that was the instant he fell in love with her. Their relationship grew even though both knew they could get into serious trouble with the shogun for their actions.

The problems began when Arisu caught their master's attention. Isamu shuddered. He'd almost been too late that day the bastard had dragged her to his bed chamber, but luckily he'd gotten there in time.

He could still remember the screams and the feel of the blood pouring over his hands. He half remembered Arisu grabbing his blood soaked sleeves, urging him to flee with her, and he would never forget the sight of his master's glassy eyes staring up at the ceiling.

He'd felt no love for the man but ingrained with-in every samurai is the code by which they lived, and he'd known that he'd committed an unforgivable sin.

Arisu had been the one to save him, yet again. She found him when he wandered into the woods from their campsite and stopped him from falling on his own sword. It would have been an honorable death but she had not seen it that way. She'd thrown herself on top of him, begging, beating on his chest, had called him every form of idiot she could think of, and finally she'd kissed him.

It had been the kiss that had broken him.

When it was all over Isamu had decided that if he was to be a ronin than he would think of her as his shogun, and it had worked. When she'd died the title of shogun had been transferred to Lady Sango, even though he wasn't completely conscious of the fact.

A samurai lived and died by a code and no matter how far from his old life he'd come, he was still samurai. Lady Sango was his master, and this village was his shogunate. He would not let it go with out a very bloody fight.

His eyes opened and he surveyed the land again and this time his gaze settled on Riko.

She was directing some of the older children this way and that, telling them were to store the bandages, medicinal herbs, and such that she would need on hand when the battle broke out.

Here was another reason why he would buy the safety of these people with his blood. He would give all that he had, all that he was, and all that he could be to keep her safe, to keep her child safe. His lips quirked into a rueful smile.

Kami, she was gorgeous. She could make his pulse dance with something as simple as a smile. It was too bad that more often than not, she was scowling at him.

He wondered if he should just tell her he was in love with her and get it over with. Frankly, the odds of them surviving were not high and well, perhaps it was something that he'd held onto long enough.

He smirked. He could just see her face. She'd probably hit him too. For a healer she could be awfully violent.

Isamu watched as she ducked inside her hut and his feet of their own accord followed her. She was bent over a basin, splashing water on her face and didn't see him. When she turned, she jumped in fright. Her hand coming up to clutch her heart and she scowled at him.

"Kami, don't sneak up on me like that."

She brought her hand up and rubbed her neck, wincing slightly.

"You all right?" She nodded and winced again.

"My neck is just a little sore."

Not knowing what possessed him; Isamu crossed over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. She jumped.

"W-What are you doing."

"Massaging your neck," he said, gruffly and dug his hands into her soft flesh. The minute those callused palms started kneading she let out a throaty moan that he felt through his entire being; he closed his eyes and wondered again, what the hell he thought was doing. Unable to stop himself he worked the tension out of her tight shoulders and slid his right hand up her slime neck, under her hair. Riko leaned forward, boneless and made another pleasured sound that had parts of him straining.

He moved his other hand down her back and over her spine, she shuddered.

"Isamu?" She whispered. He groaned and slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her close. He leaned over and murmured into her ear.

"What are we doing Riko? Why do we keep dancing around each other?" She pulled away from him, he let her go, and he watched her hug herself.

"You know why." Her voice was barely audible. He frowned.

"I'm not him, Riko." She smiled, but there was no mirth in it.

"And I'm not her."

He turned away. "I don't need you to be her. Yes, I loved Arisu…she was my light, and part of me will always love her." He paused and regarded her intently. "But that doesn't stop me from loving you any less."

Her eyes went wide and she starting shaking her head, 'no.'

"Y-You don't mean that, Isamu. You don't love me."

He exploded in frustration. "Dammit woman, I know my own heart!"

She flinched and he cursed, but his tone turned gentle. "I hate it when you do that. Don't you know I would never hurt you? That I would cut out my own heart first?"

Shame washed over her and in penance she walked up to him and placed her hand on his forearm.

"I-I know. I know you'd never hurt me…old habits I guess."

She could feel the tension of his muscles under her fingers and he forced himself to push down the anger burning in his gut. If her husband hadn't already been dead Isamu would have gladly killed him. When she'd first told him the story he'd been furious. He'd wanted to rant and rail at the heavens. He'd wanted to dig the fucker up and kill him all over again, but that's the thing about the dead…they are beyond revenge.

"Riko, life is too short to live in the past. That's something I've learned the hard way and this battle…it could go badly, and I just…I needed you to know."

She smiled sadly. "Perfect timing as always, baka."

He grinned and pulled her into his arms. This time she came willingly and rested her head against his chest, she sighed.

"So what do we do now?"

"Well we could go into your bedroom and make love until we can't move, or we can stay like this for a little while and then go back to preparing the village."

She pulled back and whacked him playfully on the chest and he grunted in mock pain. He parted his lips to make a sarcastic comment and then froze when his eyes caught hers. Awareness snapped between them and Isamu growled.

"Aw hell." He kissed her, his lips moving over hers sensually and Riko melted into him. The next thing he knew her tongue had snaked out and she ran it along the seam of his lips. He opened them and gave her entry, moaning when the tiny pink appendage darted in.

He deepened the kiss, following her retreating tongue and tangling his with hers. She moaned into his mouth and he felt himself grow hard.

Riko felt like she was drowning. The moment his lips met hers she knew that she was gone and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she wanted him. As if they shared one mind Isamu continued kissing her and they moved into her bedroom. He wretched away for a moment to growl.

"We do this and that's it Riko, your mine….and I'm yours."

She worried her lip and then gently brushed her lips against his jaw.

"I know. But I'm not about to stop now. Make love to me Isamu."

He placed a kiss on her pulse point and said.

"Your wish is my command."


	23. Before the Devil Knows

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I was trying to finish this story before I posted the rest. You'll be happy to know I'm done and I'll be posting the chapters as I revise them over the next few days. Thanks for playing!**

"_**Two of these fellows you, must know and own; this thing of darkness I acknowledge, mine."**_

_**William Shakespeare – The Tempest**_

Miroku didn't like this place. It felt wrong, all wrong, but he couldn't pin point the source of the feeling. As he trudged after the guards with Sango at his side he went over the plan he and the taijiya had concocted during the climb.

The plan was simple. Go in the front door and pretend to play to the Lord's request while trying to find out what was really going on. Based on what they'd learned and the little he knew of his grandfather's and father's quests, he'd guessed that Toyotomi would want to lull them into a sense of complacency. It would be the most prudent course of action to take in order for him to catch them off guard, and it's what Miroku would have done in his stead.

He was far from assured though. After all there was no guarantee that the information they'd obtained was correct and thus it made the course of action they'd decided on very risky.

It was, however, the only one that made any sense. They couldn't flee, one, because whatever was going on needed to be stop, and two, because neither he nor the taijiya were the type to tuck tail and run. They'd briefly considered sending one in the front door and having the other sneak in unannounced, but he hadn't liked the idea of dividing their strengths.

If InuYasha and Kagome had been with them, then that plan would have been plausible. The hanyou was, quite frankly, one of the most powerful beings he'd ever known and Kagome was also powerful in her own right. He almost wished they were with them, but knew that such a wish was unrealistic and unproductive.

They'd both ended up rejecting that course of action because even Sango acknowledged that they were more formidable as a team than they were apart. So entering through the front door and playing dumb may have been risky, but it truly had been the only option.

Sango and Miroku continued to follow the stiff shouldered guards as they led the way into Lord Toyotomi's throne room. All around them servants bustled down the corridors refusing or afraid to meet their gaze. They remained silent, but each could tell the other was coiled and ready for any contingence. Miroku looked around and stretched out his senses and frowned in puzzlement.

The black aura they'd sensed since arriving was surprisingly absent. He exchanged a subtly look with Sango and saw the same confusion mirrored in her eyes. He wished they were somewhere they could speak freely, but it would have to wait.

The guards turned another corner and soon they found themselves in front of a well dressed, elderly gentleman.

He looked like an amalgam of all the official advisors he'd ever met. Miroku often wondered if there was one of Kagome's factories that specialized in manufacturing such men. Thin and bookish, the man regarded them with practiced disdain.

"I am Yoshinori, head advisor to Lord Toyotomi. You will follow me."

Sango wrinkled her nose and scowled, slightly annoyed by his rudeness. Miroku reached back discreetly and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. The small gesture of solidarity helped her bite her tongue.

They entered the throne room side by side and got their first look at the Lord they'd traveled so far to meet. He was younger than they'd thought he be, probably not much older than Sango's twenty winters. He would be considered handsome by most, with his dark hair and piercing light blue eyes the color of the sky in the morning, but his features were weak and there was a petulant turn to his full, feminine lips.

Miroku didn't like the look in his eyes when he looked at the slayer. He was watching her with a lustful gleam and he made no pretense of following the lines of her body from groin to breast. Miroku felt anger, and a hint of jealously, flare in his gut and he had to stop himself from stepping between them to block his perusal.

He chanced a glance at Sango and found that she was clenching her jaw. She'd noticed the man's unflattering assessment of her assets. Miroku almost wished she'd worn her yukata over her slayer armor.

He had to fight to keep his face serene and unaffected. It wouldn't do to let the Lord know that he'd upset him, but he couldn't seem to stop the white knuckled grip he had on his staff.

_Stay calm, stay focused, and for Kami's sake remember the plan! _He told himself fiercely.

The advisor reached Toyotomi before them, bowed, and said.

"My Lord, may I present the taijiya, Lady Sango, and her companion the monk, Miroku."

He smiled politely.

"It is an honor to meet you and I extend my thanks, and the thanks of my people for your prompt response to my summons."

Miroku and Sango kept their council and bowed in tandem, but it was Miroku who spoke.

"My Lord, we are at your service." Lord Toyotomi waved them away and had schooled his features.

"Do you know why I summoned you?" This time it was Sango who spoke.

"Your messenger mentioned that you were having trouble with a demon, my lord."

Miroku added. "My summons contained a similar message, Lord Toyotomi."

A concerned expression turned their host's features and Miroku was immediately skeptical as to its authenticity. He allowed his senses to touch other man for a brief second, but he felt nothing, nothing at all. It almost felt as if, Miroku's eyes widened fractionally…_it feels as if he isn't a corporal being_. The thought had no sooner taken root in his mind when he noticed the throne room waver, and a hint of something ugly and dark flashed before it solidified.

_It's an illusion. _

Miroku wanted to look at Sango and shout his discover, but he restrained the impulse. He would find a way to talk to her about it later. He was wondered briefly why Toyotomi would cloak himself and his throne room in illusion, but his musings were cut short.

"That is correct. My people have been plagued by a powerful demon. It comes in the night and carries away our children. My soldiers have been unable to stop it. The attacks have been especially vicious on the nights when the moon is full. I summoned you, monk, because many years ago your grandfather Miyatsu pledged his fidelity to my grandfather in penance for his grave mistake. If you help me to rid my lands of this evil then I will consider your family's debt repaid. I summoned you, Lady Sango, because your prowess as a demon fighter is legendary and as my soldiers have discovered at the expense of too many of their lives, this demon is formidable."

"I am happy to assist you in any way needed."

Miroku watched Toyotomi's light blue eyes burn with lust once again before he quickly hid the flames behind his laconic mask. He felt a bead of sweat slide down his neck.

The man wanted Sango…it was something he hadn't counted on and it complicated things. He was going to have to stay close to her. He shifted imperceptibly and the motion brought him between the Lord and the slayer. Toyotomi's lips briefly twitched and his next words held an edge of mockery.

"Lady Sango, I thank you for your offer and if I may be so bold. You are more beautiful than I expected a warrior of your reputation to be."

Miroku felt, more than saw, her stiffen, and he clenched his fist to keep from reaching for her hand.

Sango inclined her head. "You are too kind, my lord."

His lips twitched again.

"Yoshinori," he bellowed, his eyes never leaving the slayer. The old advisor stepped forward.

"My lord?" Toyotomi reluctantly pulled his gaze from Sango and turned to the man.

"Show our honored guests to their rooms." He turned his attention back to Sango and Miroku. "I would be honored if you would join me for dinner. The full moon is two days away and I would like to hear your plans for ridding my lands of this foul demon."

Miroku answered for both of them. "We would be honored."

Toyotomi nodded, dismissive and they followed his advisor out of the throne room. In the hallway Sango caught up to him. She leaned close enough to whisper in his ear.

"What do you think?"

He didn't have to ask her what she meant. She was wondering what his take on Toyotomi had been.

"I think…that we need to talk. They will most likely place guards near our doors, do you think you can slip away from them and meet me in my room?"

She smirked. "Of course."

He nodded, trusting that the taijiya could do as she claimed. They continued after Yoshinori in silence, each lost in thought and wondering what kind of hornet's nest they'd manage to step into.

* * *

Sango paced back and forth in the luxurious room Toyotomi had provide for her and cursed roundly. When she'd told Miroku that she would be able to meet him in his room later she hadn't really counted on the amount of security the Lord of the manor had felt the need to place at her door. She wandered over to the back door that led into the ornate gardens.

Even here she could see sentries walking a complex pattern and from the way they patrolled she could tell that they were more concerned with keeping people inside of the manor instead of guarding against those who would try to beach the walls from the outside. She cursed again in a manor that would have made InuYasha proud and fingered her sword.

Although it was late she was still dressed in her armor and she planned to remain dressed in it. She wanted to be ready in case something happened. She admitted to herself that she was on edge. This palace felt so very, very wrong and Lord Toyotomi; well she hadn't missed the look in his eyes. He'd practically been undressing her with his gaze.

She suppressed a shudder and stalked back over to the rear door of her quarters. She watched the pattern of patrol for a few more minutes and bit her lip. She could get by them she reasoned. It would be tricky and would require perfect timing, but it was doable.

She waited a few more minutes for her window of opportunity to open again and was just about to slip outside when a small scraping sound coming from the far wall stopped her. Frowning, Sango drew her short sword and silently made her way towards the sound.

It was coming from the paneling and she watched in fascination as a square broke free and two small hands appeared to push it to the side. She raised the sword, preparing to strike when a head followed the hands. It was a boy.

He looked to be about eight winters old, scrawny, with a mop of unruly dark hair and large dark eyes. He hadn't seen Sango and she stepped forward, placing the edge of her blade against the back of his neck. The boy froze and tilted those dark eyes to her.

"Boy, you had better have a very good explanation as to why you are sneaking into my room so late at night. Did your Lord send you?"

Visible shaking, she watched his mouth work like a fish out of water before he stuttered.

"M-My L-Lord didn't s-send me. T-The servants of the h-household said there was a t-taijiya here. I-I'm l-looking for him."

Sango cocked an eyebrow at the 'him' and slowly pulled her blade from his neck. She didn't, however, relax her stance.

"You found her." She emphasized the 'her' and the boy blinked up at her stupidly.

"You're the taijiya? B-B-But you're a girl." Sango's lips twitched in amusement.

"Observant aren't you." He frowned and pulled himself out of the passage way and stood to beat the dust out of his kimono. When he was done he tilted his head and looked at her critically.

"You sure you're a taijiya? I don't have time for you to be pulling my leg."

Sango relaxed her stance a little, but she still didn't put away her sword. Her instincts may have been telling her the boy was harmless, but it wouldn't do to let her guard down prematurely.

"How old are you boy?" The kid bristled, drew himself up, and lifted his chin.

"I'm not a boy. I'm ten winters, practically makes me a grown-up."

She begged to differ, but she didn't want to insult him. Besides, ten was around the age that she and her brother started training to become youkai taijiyas. Who was she to say this boy wasn't anywhere near being a grown-up?

"You have a name?" He scowled.

"Give me yours and maybe I'll give you mine." She regarded him intensely and seemed to make up her mind about something. Nodding, she sheathed her sword and offered him a little bow.

"My name is Sango." He gave her suspicious look, but finally nodded.

"I'm Michi. I'm work in the kitchen."

"Why were you looking for me?" His eyes dropped and he toed the floor.

"I-I heard the other servants talking about the visitors who'd come to see the Lord and when they said one of them was a taijiya I knew that I had to find you. I don't know what the Master told you to get you here, but you can bet that whatever he said, it's a lie."

To his surprise she smiled. "I already know that, Michi was it?" He frowned in confusion.

"T-Then why would you have come? It's dangerous here. People just…disappear without a trace and no one…" _did anything to stop it. It was always the same, _he thought. _Everyone just ignored the disappearances and made excuses and when my parents were the ones to go missing, no one helped or cared._

He didn't voice any of this, but something must have shown in his face because Sango reached out to him and squeezed his shoulder lightly. It was suppose to be a gesture of comfort but Michi jerked away. She dropped her arm and he shot her an embarrassed glare.

"I'm sorry," she said. He shook his head.

"I-It's okay…I just…They tend to beat me a lot when they can catch me so I don't really like…" He trailed off but she nodded once in understanding. She studied him a moment longer, making a decision that she hoped she wouldn't come to regret.

"You asked me why we still came; do you still want to know?" He met her cinnamon gaze and nodded.

"The houshi and I have come to stop the disappearances." He looked suspicious again.

"Why? Why would you care? It's not like you know any of us."

She frowned slightly and knelt down so she was eye level with the boy. He took an instinctive step back. She noticed and made an effort to look as non-threatening as possible.

"You're right," she replied, carefully. "I don't know any of you, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to help. Miroku and I both do. We were told that a demon has been terrorizing these lands and kidnapping children…but I…we think, that there is something deeper and more sinister occurring here. Maybe you could help shed some light on our suspicions, that is…if you are willing to help."

Michi searched the slayer's eyes; he still didn't look as if he trusted her. The silence stretched as the thought it over. This woman was the first person of his acquaintance to express a desire to stop the evil that had been hanging over this land for far too long. He would be a fool not to take her up on it. Still…could he trust her?

He worried the inside of his cheek and fidgeted a little. As he weighed his lack of options an image of his sister, Mara flashed behind his eyes. He'd been looking for a way to save her and perhaps this slayer and the monk were the means that he'd been searching for.

Sango had been watching him closely and she could see the decision to help her fill his gaze long before he finally nodded his consent.

"All right, I'll help you. What do you want to do first?"

She weighed his question and replied. "I need to sneak into Miroku's room unseen. Can you help me do that?"

Michi grinned, a devilish, I just snuck the last cookie out of the cookie jar, kind of grin.

"Follow me." Curious, she did as he requested and followed him over to the wall. It was near the square he'd climbed out of. There was a very minute gap in the paneling and when he pushed down on what appeared to be a knot in the wood, there was a click and the paneling popped open.

Amazed, Sango stuck her head in and looked down the narrow passage way he'd unearthed.

"How on earth did you find this?" He shrugged.

"No one pays attention to the kitchen boys. Come on, let's get going."

She nodded and followed him into the dark.


	24. Calling in the Calvary

**A/N More Lemony Goodness! Consider yourself warned. (Grumbles to self) I swear a little sex and some people get their freaking knickers in a twist. Sheesh.**

**_"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." _**

**_Arabian Proverb_**

InuYasha stood with Isamu at the east wall and turned a grim face towards the forest. It was late afternoon but the sun had long been blotted out by the gathering horde. He gazed into the sky and wondered idle how successful he would be if he tried to send Kagome away, preferable back to Kaede's village and down the well. Having her a few hundred years in the future when the demons finally attacked was sounding better and better to the hanyou, but he knew it wasn't feasible.

He bit back a snort. Even if it had been feasible she still wouldn't have left. His miko could be just as stubborn, if not more so, than he when it came to doing what she thought was right.

_His, _he thought, and tried to ignore the way that possessive pronoun made him feel. If he managed to survive the night of the full moon he would have time enough to worry about his feelings later.

If he survived, and it was looking like a big if. He glanced at the man standing next to him and noticed the same grim and calculating look on his countenance. The hanyou had no problem discerning what was going through the ronin's mind.

"Riko makes a lot of noise," he said conversationally. The dark look his friend shot him caused his lips to twitch.

"No more so than Kagome," Isamu replied. The half-demon scowled. A few moments of silence stretched and it became clear that neither man seemed willing to continue to pursue this line of talk. Isamu decided to have pity on him.

"How are the fortifications looking on the North wall?" Grateful to be conversing about something other than his sex life InuYasha replied.

"We've reinforced the existing supports with thicker beams and created stronger ramparts for the archers. Other than that…there wasn't much else to do. I will say this, Sango and her people knew their stuff. The bulwark is as strong as any I've seen, and with the natural wall of rock provide by the Western mountain side this village is well fortified."

Isamu grunted in agreement. "That's all fine and good, but that does nothing to help us with manpower."

He had no response to that. He knew the ronin was right so what good would it have done to argue. He scowled at the demons littering the sky and his thoughts turned dark again. They didn't have enough trained slayers and the fact remained that Tetsusaiga, albeit powerful, wasn't indestructible or fool-proof.

In short, they were doomed. His scowl deepened and a soft, "Keh," whistled through his lips. If Kagome was standing here she'd probably sit him till he couldn't walk for all his negative thoughts.

Something of his musing must have shown on his face because Isamu was suddenly grinning at him.

"You know it sure took you long enough." InuYasha snorted.

"Keh…look who's talking."

His friend laughed out loud and then sobered. He crossed his arms over his chest and returned his gaze to the forest beyond.

"Complicates things."

Another snort was his only response from the hanyou, but it conveyed his opinion of that vast understatement perfectly. He had to fight not to grin.

They stood there letting a comfortable silence envelop them, each lost in their own thoughts, when suddenly InuYasha cursed and drew Tetsusaiga. Instantly alert, Isamu drew his own sword and asked.

"What is it?"

The half-demon didn't answer, but his ears and nose were twitching in agitation. He cursed again and raced down the rampant and took off at unbelievable speeds into the village. Isamu cursed roundly and followed. He reached the village square in time to see his friend and another, unexpected but familiar being, snarling at each other.

Well to be truthful InuYasha was snarling, the other was simply gazing at the hanyou as if he was something nasty he'd stepped in.

"What are you doing here you bastard," InuYasha growled.

Lord Sesshomaru, daiyoukai, Lord of the Western lands, and though both he and InuYasha loathed the distinction, the hanyou's half brother, pinned the growling half-demon beneath his laconic and superior stare.

"I was called."

The terse explanation did nothing to clam InuYasha's ire, but only seemed to inflame it more.

"I thought I told you that if I saw you again I'd kill you." Something that looked deceptively like a smirk, quirked the regal demon's lips.

"You are welcome to try."

With a growl he hefted Tetsusaiga and probably would have attacked his brother if not for the appearance of Kagome. Shaking with annoyance, the miko stalked over to the two brothers.

"Sit boy!"

The beads around InuYasha's neck flared and he slammed to the unmerciful earth, shooting his mate a death glare.

"Kagome! What the fuck!"

She glowered at him and then turned to Sesshomaru with a smile.

"Thank you so much for coming. I wasn't sure…"

The demon's expression remained impassive.

"I owe you a life debt miko, and I always repay my debts." She smiled nervously.

"Yeah well…that is…I wasn't sure you'd get my message."

"The stone functioned as it was meant to. Considering the danger, however, I have left Rin with Jaken, but your ward refused to stay behind."

Kagome parted her lips to ask him what he meant when an exuberant yell of, "Kagome!" interrupted her.

She turned and found her arms full of fox kit. Shippo hugged her tightly around the middle and she laughed and marveled, not for the first time, at how much he'd grown.

He was no longer the little boy he'd been when they'd first begun their quest for the shards of the sacred jewel but, thankfully, he wasn't yet fully grown. She ruffled his hair and hugged him back.

"It's good to see you Shippo." The fox kit pulled back and grinned up at her, but his expression suddenly turned puzzled. She watched his nose wiggle and his tail twitch in the way it always had when he was trying to figure something out. His eyes went wide and she felt nerves clench her stomach.

He pulled out of her embrace and looked from her to the hanyou that was still pinned to the ground. His gaze turned incredulous.

"You're mated," he said. Kagome turned bright red and InuYasha growled.

"Hey runt, you'd better run 'cause when I get free I'm gonna pound you good." Shippo turned accusing eyes on him.

"You'd better not have forced her you big moron or I'm gonna…"

InuYasha started struggling against the magic holding him.

"Why you little…I'm gonna…just wait shrimp, I'm gonna pound you into next week!"

"Kagome! InuYasha's threatening me! And it's a legitimate question. I mean, why else would you mate a guy like InuYasha!"

The miko was practically glowing from her embarrassment and now they were drawing a crowd. Murmurs were starting to echo through the growing throng and she knew that she needed to nip this in the butt before it got any worse."

"Shippo," she commanded in her best mommy tone. "That's enough. You know how I feel about InuYasha and you also know that he would never have forced me to do something I didn't want to do."

The fox kit toed the ground and looked properly chastised. "I'm sorry, Kagome." She crossed her arms and graced him with a level stare.

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing too."

He turned to InuYasha and mumbled his apologies to the hanyou. Just then the magic that had been holding the half-demon captive released him and he jumped to his feet and hefted Shippo by his shirt.

"Now you're gonna get it runt." With an exasperated sigh, Kagome bellowed.

"Oh, for the love of…sit boy!" He slammed to the ground again and whined piteously.

"Kagome!"

She said nothing to him as she picked Shippo up off the ground and told him.

"Shippo, why don't you go and see what Riko and Benji are doing?" He pouted and glanced from the miko to the hanyou before nodding.

"All right, Kagome."

He stuck his tongue out at the half-demon, who growled at him in response, before scampering away towards Riko's hut.

Sesshomaru, who had been watching the whole scene impassively, stepped forward.

"Do you have accommodations for me?" She felt her stomach jump again, but she managed a nod. She half expect the youkai to say something about what he'd just heard but he surprised her.

"The hut next to Riko's is free it's the one over there." She pointed and then turned towards Isamu. "Can you show him?"

The ronin nodded and gestured towards Sesshomaru. The daiyoukai inclined his head imperceptivity and address his brother, keeping his back to him.

"We shall finish this another time."

"Bastard," his brother growled, and that barely there smirk touched the demon's lips again and without another word he followed Isamu.

Eyes wide, Kagome watched the stoic Lord retreat into the village. The villagers that had stopped to hear the argument suddenly found the need to be elsewhere. Some of them watched the demon Lord apprehensively, but most simply ignored him and left. Soon the crowd had all drifted away, leaving Kagome alone with her hanyou.

She knelt down and he lifted his face to hers, scowling.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Keh," he scoffed and looked away. She shook her head and sighed. Sometimes he made her so mad she wanted to beat him.

"I thought you and your brother had put all that sibling rivalry nonsense behind you."

InuYasha mumbled something unintelligible and she leaned forward to hear him better.

"What was that?"

He scowled and she yelped when he suddenly moved and pulled her to him. Before she could protest he'd picked her up and leapt to the roof tops. She squealed.

"InuYasha!" He grunted when he felt her fists against his back but said nothing until he'd landed near the cherry tree and pulled her into a relatively secluded corner. When he let her go she rounded on him.

"What the hell was that for!?" She growled and beat his chest with her small fists. He easily caught her hands and restrained her. His golden gaze narrowed.

"What the hell is he doing here!?"

She glared right back at him. "What do you think he's doing here, baka! I called in my favor because, 'hello!' we need all the help we can get."

InuYasha's normal scowl took on new dimensions and he digested this. "Keh," he scoffed, turned his back on her, and crossed his arms. She rested her hands on her hips, arms akimbo, and glared holes into his stubborn hide.

He frowned. He knew she was right, they really did need all the help they could get, but why in Kami's name did she run to his brother? She knew how he felt about the bastard. Sure, during the war they'd managed to not kill each other and yes, that truce extended to his reluctant agreement to let Shippo spend time in the Western lands periodically with Rin, but it didn't mean he wanted his brother's help.

His scowl deepened. He knew he was being irrational but then, rational thought never really applied to his relationship, or lack there of, with his half brother. Angry, he rounded on his mate.

"You had no right to summon him." Just as angry she spat.

"I don't NEED your permission to do ANYTHING. You don't own ME!"

Growling her grabbed her upper arms and she winced and flinched as his claws dug in.

"You're MY mate! Mine!" She wrenched away from him.

"That does NOT give you the right to manhandle me! I…Ooooo, I swear I should just si…"

Her words were cut off when he pulled her tightly against his body and slammed his mouth over hers, his tongue plunging deep into her hot depths. She pushed at his shoulders, trying to get him off of her, but it was like trying to move granite. Slowly the kiss changed. His lips softened and his tongue went from punishing to caressing. Kagome felt her lingering anger flow slowly away, and she whimpered as their passion rose.

When he sucked on her lower lip and gently nipped the skin she mewled, and he moaned when her tongue tentatively ran across his and she gently sucked on his invading appendage. They were both breathing heavy when they separated and his golden eyes were glowing.

Gently, he rested his forehead against hers and fought for control.

"I-I'm sorry," he murmured. She reached up her hand and caressed his cheek.

"I-It's okay. I-I should have told you that I called him." He closed his eyes and opened them and parted his lips to speak before clamping them shut. Curious, she brushed her lips against his and whispered.

"What is it?" He shook his head slightly and she felt the motion against her skin.

"What?" She entreated. He sighed.

"I-It's just…Kami Kagome, don't you know that I'll protect you. With my life is necessary. You don't need that bastard here to…"

She placed a finger over his lips stilling them and a tiny smile quirked hers.

"InuYasha, you are such an idiot. Do you honestly think that's why I called your brother here? Because you think I don't think you can protect me?"

He frowned and his brow creased in confusion.

"N-Not that exactly…I just…He's just…" She cut him off.

"It was no reflection on you. I know you're powerful, but you're not powerful enough to take on a near unending siege of demons, and no one here is near powerful enough to help you. He is…he can help you and together maybe you'll stand a chance. I can't lose you InuYasha, I won't lose you, and if it means calling in my favor from your brother then so be it."

He scowled softly. That fucking favor, he always knew that it would come back to bite him in the ass. During the war, Kagome had done something almost unforgivable in his eyes. She'd been injured saving his brother's life. Sesshomaru had been as equally displeased as InuYasha, if not more so, and he'd given her a river stone imbued with magic. He'd told her that he owed her a life debt and that if she'd ever had need, she could use the stone to call in one favor.

"He hates humans." She nodded.

"Yes, but he fought for them once before." He scoffed.

"He fought for his lands, nothing more."

She shrugged. "It had the same result. This time he'll fight because he owes me a life debt and his honor demands it. It will be enough."

InuYasha smirked. "So…you called my brother here to protect me?" She chuckled.

"Ironic isn't it?"

He kissed her again and she clung to him, tongues, lips, and teeth devouring each other. He was panting again when he pulled back. He nipped her pulse point and she sucked in a breath. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and her hands instinctively threaded through his silkily white hair.

"I-I love you, Kagome," he murmured, so softly that she wasn't sure she heard it. She started and he pulled back.

"I-InuYasha?" He looked away, uneasy.

"I…that is…I…" He couldn't say it with her looking at him like that. She smiled softly and tears pricked her eyes.

"I-It's okay. I know." She kissed him again, and didn't protest when he laid her down under the cherry tree.

Soon they were laying on a pile of discarded clothing with him propped up on one elbow his golden eyes feasting on her pale, silky skin. She bit her lip and arched into his touch when he wrapped one large, claw tipped hand around her breast. Slowly, his eyes never leaving hers, he bent his head and captured her other straining nipple and suckled while he gently ran the tip of his thumb claw over the other. She made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a guttural moan.

Her chocolate orbs half lidded, she buried one hand in his hair, holding his mouth to her breast and the other trailed down over his tight abdomen, seeking the one part of his anatomy that was sure to drive him wild. She felt the tight muscles ripple under her soft touch and a low growl rumbled in his chest. The rumbled turned to a full pant when she wrapped her hand around his straining cock and started to stroke him from tip to base.

"Kagome," he moaned. She nipped his chin. He deftly captured her hands and trapped it against her hip.

"You sure seem to be fascinated by my cock." She turned crimson and sputtered.

"It's not…I'm not…Ohhh you…you baka!" He chuckled and started kissing his way down her flat stomach down her left hip only to pause over the silky dark haired mound that hid her womanhood."

She gazed at him with wide, curious eyes.

"I-Inuyasha?" He grinned, feral.

"I've been dying to find out if you taste as good as you smell," he rumbled, low. She gasped just as he buried his head between her thighs and ran his long tongue along her dripping labia, before plunging inside.

She screamed and he continued his sensual assault, alternating between running his tongue deep inside to flicking it rapidly against her swollen clit. Hands fisted in the earth beside at her sides she bucked her hips and thrashed panting hard. InuYasha moved up her folds and caught her clit between his lips, sucking hard while he plunged two fingers inside her.

His claws lent him an advantage for he was able to find the line of nerves concealed in her vaginal walls and scrap back and forth against them. Kagome's eyes rolled back into her head and she came so hard her body arched off the ground while she cried his name in ecstasy. Slowly, she came back to earth, falling limp and satiated. InuYasha removed his fingers and licked them clean before kissing his way up her body. She smiled at him and gazed at him with languid, well pleasured eyes. He felt his already sizable ego swell.

"Liked that, huh." She mumbled something unintelligible and nodded. He smirked and grazed her lips with his before nuzzling her neck and whispering.

"Now for round two." Her eyes went wide and before she could protest he leaned his back against the tree and pulled her astride him so her legs straddled his hips. He plunged inside her causing her to gasp. Mindless with want they rocked against each other, grunts, growls, and moans filling the air.

A loud, keening cry was ripped from her throat when he thrust into her deeper, and harder than ever before. Light flared, her senses became hyper sensitive, and she could feel her inner muscles milking him as her orgasm tore through her. He groaned loud and long as his cock spasm and he spilled his seed into her womb.

Breathing heavy the collapsed to the ground and he pulled her into his arms.

Rubbing the smooth skin of her back they laid there together, gazing up at the sky and generally enjoying the afterglow. He felt his heart swell and he glanced down at his mate's beautiful face. Protectively, he gathered her against him and she snuggled into his warmth with a contented sigh.

_Mine, _his demon growled and he couldn't agree more. She was his and nothing and no one would be taking her away from him anytime soon.

So…he would do as she asked. He would fight side by side with his bastard brother once again, and they would drive off Tatsuo's hordes.

Failure…was not an option.


	25. Aligning Forces

"_**Please allow me to introduce myself – I'm a man of wealth and taste – I've been around for a long, long year -- Stole many a man's soul and faith."**_

_**Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil**_

Miroku paced back and forth in his room and cast an uneasy glance to his door. The shadows creeping under it shifted and he frowned hard. There were guards everywhere and despite his wish to speak with Sango he was afraid that his request for her to visit him in his room might possible put her in danger.

He was under no illusions that his taijiya wouldn't try to reach him, nor did he lack faith in her talents, but it was starting to appear an unnecessary risk. Miroku tried to stretch his aura out once again and like before he felt his power brush up against a barrier.

He cursed. Something was interfering with his powers and he had a pretty good idea what it was. Frowning, he paced to over to the edge of his futon and froze when he heard a scratching sound coming from the wall near him. Miroku whirled, grabbed his staff from where it rested on the wall, steadied and faced the sound.

A moment later an opening appeared, as if by magic, and a boy stumbled into the room, closely followed by Sango. He felt the adrenalin seep out of his tense muscles and he slowly relaxed his stance.

"Who's your friend?" Sango smiled and gestured to the boy.

"This is Michi. He's one of Toyotomi's servants." She made the same gesture towards Miroku.

"And this is Miroku. He's the friend I was telling you about." Miroku watched in amusement and the boy eyed him up and down critically. He snorted.

"Eh, he don't look like much. How's he gonna help?"

Sango couldn't help herself, she brought her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles, but she was unable to squash the mirth dancing in her cinnamon gaze. Miroku frowned but his expression slowly turned to a smirk and his indigo eyes promised repercussions later. Silently, he dropped on his knees so he was eye level with the boy.

Michi watched him with the same distrust he'd recently bestowed on Sango. Miroku didn't let his gaze waver from the boys as he drew out a sutra and held it up for the boy to see.

"Watch carefully boy."

Sango's giggles subsided and she watched the monk with a puzzled frown. _Just what is he up to? _She thought only to gasp along with Michi when Miroku made the flimsy paper stand up in is hand and disappear in a poof of flames.

"How'd you do that?" Michi asked and Sango had to admit she was just as interested in the answer as the boy. Miroku grinned and reached around behind Michi's ear. His eyes flinched, but he held his ground and the older man nodded in approval. With a twitch of his fingers Miroku pulled the vanished sutra out from behind the boy's head.

Sango gazed at him astonished, but his gaze never moved from Michi's.

"What say you know, boy? Do I meet with your approval?"

Michi grinned.

"You didn't tell me the houshi was magic." He accused. Sango narrowed her eyes on the pair.

"That's because I didn't know," she mumbled and the smirk that Miroku shot her had her hands convulsing. She had the irresistible urge to slap that expression off of his face.

Looking at him suspiciously he gazed back at her with supreme innocence. Whenever Miroku had the expression on his face she knew that he'd done something either lecherous or untrustworthy. She glared at him.

"Houshi…" she growled. He hastily cut her off.

"Tell me Michi, what can you tell us of your master?" The boy shuddered and Sango had to fight the urge to put his arms around him and pull him into a comforting hug.

"He's evil."

Miroku smiled indulgently.

"Yes, but evil how? Mortal, spirit, demon?"

The boy shrugged. "I wouldn't know about any of that. All I can tell you is what I've seen."

The monk nodded and the boy continued.

"I don't think he's human. 'Cause I've seen what happens to all the girls he ruts when he's done with them. I don't think anyone else here knows about it. I wouldn't either if I hadn't of found my sister," he choked up and swallowed hard, "with the others."

The older man frowned and anger started to smolder in his eyes.

"Explain." Michi bit his lips and looked at his hands.

"Lord Toyotomi is always taking servant girls and village girls and taking them to his bed. Most of the servants think he takes them for his harem, but I've found out differently. He's…done something too them. They appear to be with child but…I can't explain it…you would have to see for yourselves."

Miroku regarded the boy silently for a few moments, lost in thought.

"Can you take us to your sister?" He nodded and Miroku looked to Sango, who nodded as well.

He stood up and grabbed his staff.

"Let's go."

Looked like they were going to miss dinner.

* * *

Sango and Miroku followed Michi as he led them through a labyrinth of twisting passageways. They'd been walking for a good half an hour and Miroku was starting to fear that the boy was lost, but his fears were assuaged when they reached the end of a long dark tunnel and came out through the mouth of a cave. The moon was in its zenith and bathed everything around them in soft white light.

He regarded the glowing orb thoughtfully. In two days time the moon would be full. It would be the hunter's moon, the blood moon. He frowned. Toyotomi had demanded they arrive before the full moon and he'd implied it was because that was when the demon was most fearsome, but he knew that excuse was simply a lure to bring him and Sango here at an appointed time.

And yet he still had not discerned Toyotomi's game. It was frustrating. He had been sure that once they arrived at the palace he would understand what the Lord had been planning, but with the dissipation of the strange demonic aura and the Lord's clever illusion in the throne room he simply had more questions.

Perhaps seeing Michi's sister and the other young girls would provide him with the clue he needed. Quickly and quietly they followed the boy to a large wooden structure standing in the distance. Michi held his finger to his lips, gesturing for silence and crept around back.

Sango exchanged a look with Miroku and they carefully followed. Like three inconspicuous shadows they slipped into the structure and the moment they crossed the threshold both Sango and Miroku staggered.

Eyes wide, her gaze flew to his. "Do you feel that?"

He nodded grimly. "How could I not? It is almost overwhelming." And it was familiar, very, very familiar.

Sango voiced what he had been thinking. "It's the same as the aura that possessed the fox kit."

His lips thinned. "It's also the same as the aura we felt choking the villages we passed, which begs the question. Why were we unable to sense it with-in the walls of the palace?"

She shivered. "Something or someone with an immense amount of power was cloaking it."

He nodded grimly. At that moment Michi beckoned them forward, effectively cutting off their whispered conversation. When they entered the hall the choking demonic aura felt as if it was pressing and seeping into their skin. Sango shuddered and was grateful when Miroku took out a sutra, muttered a few words over it, folded it and tucked it so it was hidden in the waist band of her sash.

Immediately the aura dimmed to bearable and she felt the warmth of Miroku's spiritual power enfold her in a warm cocoon. It was almost as intimate as being held naked in his arms. A hint of pink tinted her cheeks.

"Thank you," she whispered softly. He smiled and shrugged.

"It's the least I can do. After all, it is so very rare that you need my protection that I enjoy being able to render aid when I can."

She frowned. She wasn't exactly sure how she should take that statement but, before she could ask Miroku's attention was drawn to the moans and pained gasps coming from the doorway beyond. With a grim expression on his face he stepped forward, following Michi, and Sango found herself bringing up the rear.

It took a moment for what she was seeing to be processed by her brain, but once it did the oppressive horror threatened to snap her sense of reality in two.

"Kami," she breathed. One glance at Miroku's hard and angry face confirmed that she wasn't the only one appalled by what they were seeing and sensing. It was...reprehensible and simply being in the room made her feel dirty and unclean.

There were thirteen young women in the room, most in their very early to mid-teens. Each was lying on a tatami mat and their bellies were swollen with child. The demonic aura engulfed and infused them like a rancid disease. Sango very much feared she was going to be sick.

"Gods Miroku…they're so young. He must have r…" She glanced at Michi and thought better of her statement. The boy, thankfully, had not been listening, but Miroku understood all to well what she'd been about to say.

His knuckles tightened around the hard wood of his staff and turned a ghostly shade of white.

Keeping his voice low so that Michi would not overhear him he muttered. "That's not the worst of it taijiya. These children…are not natural and if they are brought to term I fear that none of these young women will survive."

Sango stifled her gasp and felt rage burn in her gut. Toyotomi was a monster…pure and simple and as a warrior her blood cried out for penance. She could only think of one thing that would atone for this atrocity.

She was shaken from her rising bloodlust by the feel of a small hand on her wrist. Forcibly making herself focus she met Michi's eyes with a question in hers. He tugged on her wrist.

"Come. Mari is over here."

The girl they approached was like the others, young, pretty, and in an excruciating amount of pain. Mari blinked and turned accusing eyes on her brother.

"Michi…what have you done?" The boy looked mutinous.

"They say they can help, sister." She closed her eyes and looked away.

"You should have listened to me, Michi. You should have run when you had the chance. Now…it's too late."

"I told you…I won't leave you here. I won't!" She said nothing and to his embarrassment tears were streaming down his cheeks. He stiffened when Miroku put his uncursed hand on his shoulder, but he didn't shrug him off. Sango knelt down so that she was eye level with Mari and reached out to touch her, but the girl recoiled.

"No!" She screamed. Sango held both her hands up in a placating gesture.

"Okay…all right…it's all right," she murmured soothingly. The girl gradually calmed down.

"Y-You mustn't touch me, it will make him angry."

"Who? Lord Toyotomi?" She shook her head and Sango frowned in confusion.

The same puzzled expression could be found on Miroku's face. He removed his hand from Michi's shoulder and knelt down.

"If not Toyotomi then who Mari? Who are you afraid of?" The teenager bit her lower lip and turned towards them slowly. Her eyes were wide-eyed with fear.

"I-I don't know his name. H-He whispers to me in my dreams and tells me horrible things. He says the children growing in my belly belong to him. He says I belong to him. Please…I don't want him to find out…I don't want him to know…"

She suddenly gasped and her body started to tremble in terror.

"He's coming...it's too late…too late."

Miroku and Sango stood up and simultaneously readied their weapons just as the sound of multiple footsteps echoed from the hall beyond. A moment later a number of guards entered the room followed closely by their host.

He sneered at them when he saw them and instinctively Sango made sure the boy was hidden behind them.

"Well, well…aren't we clever. I wondered why you missed dinner and now I know. It seems that I no longer have any needed of the charade I perpetuated upon your arrival."

Sango and Miroku felt a burst of power crackle through the air and the illusion he'd been holding in place vanished. Where there had once been human guards there were now snarling demons. Miroku drove his hand into his robes and pulled out a sutra, intent on attempting to dispel some of the demons, but Toyotomi quickly grabbed the nearest young woman and promptly placed a blade at her throat.

"Now monk, that is not very nice. I'm afraid if you throw that little spell I will be forced to spill her blood all over this nice, clean floor. Your weapons please."

Sango tensed her fingers around her short sword and exchanged a look with Miroku. He was scowling.

"Do as he says," he conceded, gruffly. She wanted to argue, loath to give up her sword, but she could tell by the look in the Lord's eyes that he would have no qualms about backing up his threat. Grudgingly, she threw her sword to the floor. Miroku dropped his staff and the sutra he'd pulled out.

Toyotomi tightened his hold on the girl and she yelped when the knife dug a thin gash into her neck. Blood welled and she whimpered.

"Now houshi, you know better than that. All of them…now." Miroku glared hard at the man, dug in his robes, and threw the rest of his sutra's in the pile. All that is, but one.

Using the slight of hand he'd used to impress Michi earlier, he palmed the remaining gold leaf sutra and managed to tuck in the pocket of the boy's kimono.

Michi was oblivious.

Satisfied, Toyotomi waved his demon guards forward.

"Take them." The guards surged forward and promptly knocked the three unconscious.

Two of them dragged Miroku and Michi off in one direction while another threw Sango over his shoulder and headed in another.

Mari watched them take the strangers and her brother, her heart heavy and her last vestige of hope…gone.

* * *

Cool night air ruffled her gray hair while she sat on the bank of a vast, peaceful lake…waiting.

"I knew I'd find you here."

Lady Kaede's lips twitched into a brief, indulgent smile, but she didn't turn around.

"Seeing as how ye brought me here, I've no doubt that ye were expecting to find me, Lord Komoku."

The spirit lifted his shoulder in Gallic shrug and came to stand next to her on the bank. Kaede did not rise and continued to gaze out upon the tranquil waters.

"The monk and the taijiya have entered his palace. It will be over soon…one way or another."

Kaede folded her hands in her lap and frowned slightly.

"Is there nothing ye can do?"

He shook his head. "There are things that are not permitted. I can not interfere with their quest. This trial is for them and them alone."

She finally turned to look at him.

"Ye are troubled." It wasn't a question and he didn't deny, nor did he explain. She didn't press, knowing he wouldn't or simply couldn't tell her.

Komoku motioned for her to stand and she did so, much less painfully than she would have if she'd been in her arthritic and aged body.

"Hold out your hands." She did so and was surprised to feel them fill with smooth, heavy steel. She looked down and found her knuckles wrapped around Lord Komoku's lance.

"My Lord?" He placed his hand on her cheek and she closed her good eye briefly before opening it and regarding him silently.

"It is time for you to go to the slayer's village. You are needed. Take this, it will aid you."

She nodded solemnly and he retracted his hand and turned to leave, but before he vanished he added one last instruction.

"And Lady Kaede." She glanced up and regarded him steadily. "Bring the boy with you. He will be needed."

Lord Komoku disappeared into the mist and Lady Kaede awoke with the lance of the guardian of the South clutched firmly in her wrinkled hands.

A quiet 'meow' drew her attention and she tilted her head towards the sound. Kirara blinked up at her and cocked her head to the side, ears twitching. The old miko smiled and gently ruffled her ears. The nekomata purred contentedly.

"Go and wake Kohaku and Chie. We've a journey ahead of us."

The deceptively small demon meowed again and padded silently towards the sleeping figures at the far end of the hut. She softly batted Kohaku's cheek with the pad of her paw. The boy awoke instantly and his hand instinctively curled around his scythe until he realized where he was and relaxed. Kaede rose painfully to her feet.

"Come Kohaku, we've work to do. Ye need to pack yours and the little one's things." He frowned.

"Where are we going?"

She paused and regarded him sternly with her good eye.

"We're going to your village."


	26. Armies Marching

**_I will give the secrets you request -- And you will be the one to sacrifice -- So lay your olive arms upon my breast -- And sing the poems, free the butterflies_**

**_Pray your gods who ask you for your blood -- For they are strong and angry jealous ones -- Or lay upon my altar now your love -- I fear my time is short -- There are armies moving close -- Be quick, my love._**

**_Toad and the Wet Sprocket – Pray Your Gods_**

Kagome groaned as the sunlight streaming in woke her from a very pleasant dream and promptly winced. Gods she was sore and the reason for her tender flesh was spooned up against her back with his arm firmly around her waist.

"Kami," she whispered, made to pull away, and yelped. She suddenly found herself underneath a very naked and very alert hanyou. She shifted her right leg and her thigh brushed against something silky and hard and she groaned.

"No….no, no, no, no, no! Absolutely not! I swear you are like the freaking energizer bunny!"

He gazed at her with an adorable pout and puppy dog eyes, but she was going to stand firm.

"No, InuYasha!"

"But Kagome," he entreated and rubbed his chest against her breasts. Her traitorous nipples hardened immediately and she sucked in a ragged breath.

She pushed him away. "Dammit InuYasha, I can't come anymore! We did it six times last night!"

She huffed and he smirked at her. Slowly trailing his fingers down her abdomen and inserting it into her already slick folds. She bucked and whimpered.

"InuYasha! Please…you have to…" She moaned and he whispered in her ear.

"Are you sure you don't want me to make you come again?"

She mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Damn insatiable demon stamina," but the words were lost among their building ardor. When he plunged inside her she was more than ready for him and when the came together they screamed each others names.

He was smiling and wondering if he could talk his mate into round eight, when there was a knock at the door. Grumbling about the interruption, he pulled on his hakama, stumbled barefoot towards the door, and flung it open.

"This had better be important."

Isamu was on the other side, frowning.

"We've got a problem."

* * *

Isamu glanced from the hanyou to his right and the daiyoukai to left. InuYasha was fidgeting and growling, fingering Tetsusaiga like he was itching for a fight. Sesshomaru was behaving exactly the opposite of his half brother. The regal demon Lord looked impassive and bored, and his arm hung loosely at his side, as if he had no need to let it hover over the Tokijin's hilt.

Isamu knew it was the mark of a skilled and deadly warrior to appear so calm before a fight. It was one of the few things he'd allowed himself to admire about the daiyoukai. Below them, a legion of ogre demons stood behind a one armed ogre sporting a long scar over one milky, dead eye.

Isamu allowed his gaze to rest on Kagome briefly. She was white as a ghost and although she hid it well, her hand trembled slightly. He didn't really blame her. He remembered the war all to well, although he did wonder why her fear seemed personal. With a frown, he turned his attention back to the field beyond and his eyes focused on the leader of the ogre horde.

The snarling beast was pacing in front of the wall and bellowing.

"I've come for my revenge miko! I will raze this village to the ground and there will be no mercy shown, just as you showed no mercy to my father!"

InuYasha gripped the handle of his sword tightly and cursed. "Dammit, I thought this bastard was dead."

Sesshomaru shifted his focus and regarded his half-brother arrogantly.

"Perhaps if your aim was better." The hanyou snarled and made to lunge at him, but Kagome stepped between them, scowling.

"This is no the time for you two to be fighting each other. We've got bigger problems." With a fierce look that promised retribution he turned back to the figure pacing just beyond the village walls.

Nio was the son of the lord of the ogres, the demon Kijo. InuYasha swallowed the snarl of rage that bubbled in his throat. He glanced at Kagome and he too saw the fear that Isamu had noticed, but unlike the ronin, he knew the cause. His demon howled and he could feel the bloodlust surging through his body. He wanted to maim this bastard, kill him, and destroy him. The scent of Kagome's distress was driving him and it was making him insane.

Growling low in his throat, he leveled his golden gaze at the demon.

One thought had permeated his brain when he'd appeared. A horrible, repressed memory that he'd buried in the deepest, darkest, dankest corner of his soul.

Nio had killed her.

It was something she was unaware of, except on the most basic, instinctual level, and a secret he would take to his grave.

It was during the final battle of the war and the fighting had been fierce and brutal. To this day he could still remember the metallic smell of blood and the stench of burned flesh, both youkai and human.

He and Kagome had somehow become separated from the rest of their allies and had found themselves backed into a dead end, battling for their lives. Kijo had led the ogres against them and Kagome's arrow that had found its purifying mark, destroying the demon and effectively ending two years of unrest.

Nio had been near enough to the miko to drive his claws through her side and pull out her intestines. In his rage, InuYasha had ignored the fact that the quarters were a little too close to contain the backlash wave and had let Tetsusaiga loose. Nio had been caught on the fringes of the wave and InuYasha had thought that he'd finished the bastard off.

When he'd finally dug Kagome out of the rubble…it had been too late.

He had cradled her limp form against his chest willing her still heart to beat again and had done something he'd never thought he'd ever do in his lifetime. He'd begged his brother to bring her back.

He never got to find out what Sesshomaru's answer would have been. A demon suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere and would have put a sword through his half brother's back had not InuYasha blocked it.

Sesshomaru had gazed at him with an inscrutable expression on his face, drew Tenseiga and brought Kagome back from the dead.

She hadn't remembered anything past putting an arrow in Kijo and he hadn't enlightened her. It had been a selfish decision. He'd managed to delude himself over the years that if she didn't remember dying, then it hadn't happened.

Scowling, he shook himself back to the present and took her trembling fingers. She shot him a grateful smile. He knew she was probably wondering why she was so terrified of the snarling demon, but he'd let Kikyo drag him to hell before he'd ever enlighten her.

He glanced around, noticed the village archers were primed and ready for an attack, and he pulled his sword.

Isamu scowled and drew his own sword.

"Looks like the fight is going to start early," the ronin commented.

InuYasha grunted, but made no other reply. He wanted this bastard and a fight was fine by him.

Nio suddenly let out a blood curdling war cry and the ogre's surged forward. A yell of 'archer's ready', echoed from Hotaka, the young slayer Isamu had made his second in command. As tantamount to their training the archers notched their arrows, drew them back, and held to await the fire command. The demons pounded closer, sweat dripped off the nearest archer's brow and the moment seemed suspended in time.

Hotaka's lips had parted to form the words, 'aim and fire,' but before he could, a loud whooshing sound filled the air and a man appeared between the ogre's and the village wall, formed from inky black shadows.

Isamu and the others watched in stunned fascination as Tatsuo put up his hands and formed a demonic barrier between the village and the ogres.

Nio's legion bounced off the barrier and he roared at the man.

"What is the meaning of this!?"

Tatsuo regarded him with those eerie, obsidian eyes and spoke in the disembodied, echoing voice of legion.

"Enough…retreat or die. The moon is not upon us, it is too soon. I must have the souls of the slayer's people for my master. You will not interfere."

Nio snarled. "Fuck your master, and fuck you! You do not control the ogre tribe as you do that mindless horde you've summoned to do your nasty bidding. This village is mine. I will have my revenge!"

Tatsuo's expression never wavered. Suddenly, a crackling appeared around him and his body levitated a couple of feet off the ground.

"As you wish," he said and threw up his hands. The sky overhead became dark with ominous clouds and before Nio knew what was happening, black lightening shot across the sky and hit part of his horde.

The echoes of hideously pained screams and the stink of burned flesh rose in the air. Nio turned around fearful and watched the lightening descended, bolt, after bolt, after bolt, rending, burning, ripping, and tearing his demons into lumps of oily flesh.

Fear stripped the demon lord of his arrogance, and in his animalistic terror he lunged at Tatsuo with his sword primed to pierce his chest.

Three bolts of black lightening rained from the sky and engulfed him. By the time the smoke cleared there wasn't enough left of Nio to fill an ashtray.

Tatsuo turned, looked up at them and blandly said.

"When the moon is high we will feast." He vanished as quickly as he'd appeared.

* * *

Kagome was standing by the door to Sango's hut watching Isamu and InuYasha argue with yet another group of villagers that wanted to flee the village and leave in hopes of outrunning the demons. Isamu was coming as close to completely losing his temper as she'd ever seen him and her hanyou was apoplectic.

"You're a fool, Seiji. Those demons will never stop and if you go off on your own, all you're going to do is make yourself and your family easy meals. The village is fortified. At least here we stand some semblance of a chance."

Seiji threw up ups hands, a hint of hysteria coloring his words. "But you saw what he did! How can we defend against a demon that can call fire from the sky!"

InuYasha scoffed. "Keh, run you coward, see how far you get."

Seiji's fear overrode his good sense and he spat. "Half-breed scum, you don't care about any of us. The only one here you'd ever lift a claw to protect is your demon loving whore!"

InuYasha was on him before anyone could blink. He grabbed him by the neck and slammed him hard against the wall of Sango's hut.

"You bastard," he growled. Kagome gasped and rushed over, pulling at his iron muscles, trying to get him to release the man. Seiji was gasping and turning blue and blood trickled down his neck.

"InuYasha stop, please! You must stop!" She clawed helplessly at his hands. Her voice must have done something to infiltrate his blood lust, because he abruptly dropped the man, snarled something unintelligible, and sprinted away. Kagome dropped down to help the fallen man, but he batted her hands away angrily.

"I'm all right, don't touch me!" She recoiled and frowned at him while he scrambled away. The surrounding villagers mumbled to themselves and watched him go. Calmly, Kagome rose to her feet and ran a shaky hand through her hair.

She knew that there were those out there that would not accept the fact that she had mated to a hanyou, but she'd never….

Shaking off her wayward thoughts she turned to Isamu and said quietly.

"Seiji was cruel but he had a valid point about the demon magic. How are we to defend against that?"

Isamu crossed his arms over his chest and frowned sadly.

"I'm not sure Kagome, but don't give up hope. If we give up hope then he wins."

She nodded and opened her mouth to argue a bit more, but she was interrupted.

"The ronin be right child. Ye mustn't give up hope." Kagome turned and a wide smile split her face.

"Kaede!" She exclaimed and ran to the elderly miko. She welcomed the young woman's enthusiastic hug, even though it almost drove her off her feet.

Behind her Chie squealed, "Daddy!" and ran to her father. The big man caught her and spun her around. Kagome pulled away from Kaede and looked beyond her. Kirara meowed in greeting and Kohaku shuffled his feet and attempted to smile. She took pity on them.

She walked over, bent down and ruffled the nekomata's ears, causing her to purr in delight, and then pulled Kohaku into a brief hug. The boy stiffened slightly, but managed to endure the contact. Kagome brushed a stray lock of unruly hair off his forehead and smiled softly.

"It's good to see you again, Kohaku." He shuffled his feet again.

"It's nice to see you too, Kagome," he admitted. She smiled and he grinned before she turned back to the elderly miko.

"You overheard?"

She nodded gravely. "Aye child, I overheard. I believe I can help ye."

Those standing around started muttering again and Isamu wander over with Chie clinging to him and resting her head on his broad shoulder.

"What did you have in mind my Lady?"

She glanced around, making sure she had the villagers' attention.

"Lord Komoku came to me in a dream. He bestowed a gift."

Kaede steepled her fingers together and focused with her one good eye, muttering a few words. Suddenly a heavy lance appeared in her hands, its polished gloss and razor tip glinting in the sun.

Around them people gasped at the made other sounds of awe and surprise.

"The Guardian of the Southern Direction has lent me a portion of his power so that I may offer his protection to ye. Watch closely."

Ignoring the pain in her aged limbs Kaede twirled the lance until it faced downward and slammed the tip into the ground with all the strength she possessed. The ground shook briefly and a blue tinged light pooled at the head of the spear and slowly started to increase in circumference as it spread away from the source.

Everyone watched in awe as the light formed a barrier that surrounded the village, stopping just shy of the village walls, and engulfing it in the warm glow of Komoku's power. Kaede stumbled away from the lance, an exhausted expression on her face and Kagome quickly rushed forward to support her before she could fall.

Wearily, she lifted her good eye to the girl and patted her hand softly.

"Thank ye, child. I had to use my own power to activate the magic."

Kagome looked on the elderly miko with worry in her dark eyes. She lifted her gaze to Isamu.

"I'm taking her to Riko to be check over." Isamu was still looking at the barrier with an expression of wonder on his face and nodded absently. Kagome glanced over her shoulder at Kohaku.

"Help me, please," she entreated. The boy nodded and placed Kaede's other arm over his shoulder. Together they took her to Riko.

Chie stuck two fingers in her mouth and gazed solemnly up at her father.

"Lady Kaede told me about it. She said it would keep us safe." Isamu pulled his stunned mind away from the awesome sight of the barrier and looked at his daughter. Mixed emotions swirled through him. He was glad she was in his arms once again, but at the same time he wished she was still far away in Kaede's village were she would be safe.

"Lady Kaede, told you this did she?"

His daughter nodded. He sighed and kissed her forehead.

"Then let us hope that it will be enough, yes?"


	27. Wretched Hope

_**"The miserable have no other medicine but only hope".**_

_**William Shakespeare – Measure for Measure**_

Sango woke with a groan and a pounding in her skull near the lump that was had risen under her hair. She was disoriented for a moment, wondering where she was, until the events leading to her present condition flooded back. She'd moaned and speculated briefly on how long she'd been unconscious.

With a small grunt she sat upright and the covers that had been draped over her slid down.

She frowned in puzzlement; she was lying in the middle of a rather large futon in a very lavish room, and for the life of her she couldn't seem to remember how she'd gotten there. Uneasy, she looked down at her torso and found to her vast relief that she was still clothed in her armor. Still, it didn't explain much. Waking up in a cell would have made more sense…she didn't like what waking up in a bed chamber implied.

"I see you've awakened taijiya. How fortunate. I had so hoped that you'd be up in time to enjoy our time together. I must say that I have been anticipating having you just this way so many times, that I do hope the reality can live up to the fantasy."

Sango's eyes went wide. Lord Toyotomi stood at the foot of the futon and there was no mistaking the lustful gleam in his eyes, nor the now apparent fact that it was his bed she was stretched out on.

She had no illusions as to his intent. Sango scrambled to her knees and attempted to scuttle away, but a jolt of power threw her back on the mattress. She gained her knees again and spat.

"What have you done? Release me at once!"

Toyotomi chuckled. "No, I don't think I will." He skimmed his hot gaze from the outline of her breasts, down her flat stomach, and he licked his lips when he reached the shadowed V of her thighs. Even though she was covered from head to toe in her armor, she still felt his gaze like an oily, distasteful caress. Bile rose in the back of her throat.

"You truly are magnificent."

"If you think for one second that you will ever touch me you are dangerously mistaken."

Toyotomi leered. "Oh, I plan on doing so much more than touch you. I plan on pounding my hard cock into your cunt until you're screaming for me to stop, and then I think perhaps I'll make you suck me off a few times until you're sick from the amount of seed I shall make you swallow. There will be other, less pleasant things I shall do, but I'm sure you get the general idea."

A sickened expression crossed her features and she snarled.

"I'll cut my own throat before I'll let you violate me, you fucking bastard."

He tossed her a Gallic shrug. "My dear, soon you'll be begging me to fuck you. I've given you a bit of my special elixir. I'll wager even now your body is starting to feel hot and uncomfortable. Soon, your breasts will start tingling and your sex will weep, urging you to find release. The longer you resist, the more painful it will become, until you'll do anything, fuck anything, just to make it all go away."

Sango could only stare at him in wide-eyed disgust. He couldn't possibly be telling her the truth. As far as she knew there was no herb that could act in such a fashion, but the longer she sat there the more her body started to itch and burn. With a dawning sense of horror she realized that she was becoming aroused.

The look that Toyotomi bestowed on her was decidedly self-satisfied. She gathered every ounce of her loathing and leveled it the man.

"I don't care what you've done to me. You will not touch me."

He smiled. It wasn't pleasant.

"I can be patient taijiya; after all, I've been waiting for you for a long time. I can afford to wait a little longer. I wonder if after you've tasted the pains and pleasures I can give you, if you would have ever been able to bare the houshi's touch again. Sadly, after I've had my way with you, you will never be able to find out."

Sango paused and frowned at him.

"What do you mean? What are you planning to do with us?"

He paced over to an ornate jade basin on the other side of the room and spoke briefly into the air.

"What think you? Should we tell her?"

Sango flinched in surprise when a disembodied voice answered.

"It is of no consequence now. Soon she will no longer be around to cause us any undue trouble."

She turned swiftly looking around the room to find where the voice had come from. She could see nothing.

"What was that?" She questioned harshly, and he chuckled at the hint of fear coloring her voice.

"Not so brave now, are we taijiya? And my friend is correct. After the ceremony you will no longer be alive to give us any trouble so perhaps I will enlighten you. You came all this way after all and thus deserve some compensation. Would you like to hear my story?"

Sango could think of nothing more repellant than listening to this disgusting man talk, but as he yammered on she'd accidental ran her hands over the hard square tucked in her sash.

She now had her fingers curled around it and found that the burning, unnatural lust she'd been feeling was being overridden by the warmth of Miroku's magic. She inhaled softly, as if she could almost smell her houshi's unique scent, and a feeling of peace spread through her belly.

It centered her and gave her the strength to meet his gaze. Lord Toyotomi frowned, not sure he liked how steady her eyes seemed. They should be heated and unfocused by now.

"Even if I say 'no' you'll tell me anyway. Why make it seem as if I have a choice?"

He smirked. "You are quite right, you have no choice. Do you know taijiya; I've been Lord of this castle for almost one hundred years? Would you, perhaps, be interested in discovering how I've managed such a feat?"

Sango had to admit she was curious, and since he was in such a sharing kind of mood maybe she could get him to tell her something they might be able to use against him.

"I have a feeling you're going to tell me."

He inclined his head regally. "It all started with an argument. I had words with my weak-willed father about his feeble-minded polices for running our immense holdings. I had long become incensed by his stupidity and cowardice and longed for a way to take the throne from him, so I might rule these lands the way were meant to be ruled. The problem was that the people, those insipid sheep, were very fond of my father. Oh, he was most beloved for his generosity and diplomacy and because of this our holdings would never have grown beyond these mountains."

Snarling, he paced across the room and kicked a piece of furniture, startling her.

"So I went for a long walk to cool my temper and was in the midst of plotting his downfall, when I had the great fortune to stumble down a hole into a long buried cavern. There is where I found my destiny."

The disembodied voice returned and replied sardonically. "Really, must you be so melodramatic?"

Toyotomi lashed out and knocked a vase onto the floor. It shattered on impact. Sango was now tracing his increasingly unstable movements with a wary eye.

"I'm speaking," he roared. The voice chuckled with dark amusement.

"By all means…continue."

Angry now, he turned toward Sango and pointed to the sky. "Do not mock me! You need me to prepare the sacrifice. Without me you would still be stuck in that miserable stone prison that miko bitch sealed you in!"

The voice spoke again, amusement gone.

"You test my patience, Toyotomi! Enough of this ego stroking, fuck the wench and be done with it because as of tonight, she is mine!"

Sango had gone very still and her fingers were curled so tightly around the sutra Miroku had given her that her knuckles were turning white. Kami…he'd released it, he'd released the evil Midorikoand the monk had sealed away.

No wonder this land was choked in evil. She watched guardedly, as Toyotomi went from a controlled arrogant bastard to unhinged arrogant bastard. The light of madness that he'd previously hidden was well on the way to bubbling over, as he continued ranting at the being whose aura permeated the room.

"You do not dictate to me! No one dictates to me!" With a growl of rage he crossed the room and reached out to grab her wrist. She recoiled and he growled in annoyance.

"You stupid bitch!" He lunged for her, but when his hand touched her skin he yelped and pulled back in pain. Sango gazed at him in astonishment as his fingers blistered and Toyotomi looked back at her, equally amazed.

He narrowed his eyes and they flew to her hand. Snarling, he pushed the nearby table over when he realized that it was clutched around a sutra. His already black mood turned even darker.

"You reek of the monk. I knew that you'd spread your legs for him like a filthy whore, but now you've become tainted with his power! Useless cunt!"

He grabbed a spear off the wall and lunged at her. Sango, infused with Miroku's power, was now able to break the aura's paralyzing hold enough to duck away, but she was still sluggish from whatever drug lingered in her system.

Toyotomi growled and advanced on her. He swung the spear again and Sango blocked it with her forearm, but the next swipe connected with her head and threw her over a low slung table and into the wall. The back of her head bounced off a wooden beam and she felt blackness swim.

_Must stay awake, _she thought hazily. Toyotomi stalked up to her and delivered a vicious kick to her abdomen. She felt her breath leave her in a whoosh of searing pain and she curled in on herself.

"Fucking whore!" He screamed and kicked her again. This time his foot glanced off her already abused head and the blankness threatened consume her, despite her will to remain conscious. Toyotomi would have kept kicking her, but a loud roar filled the room and he was thrown away as if he weighed no more than a rag doll.

"Enough! You forget yourself Toyotomi! She is to be sacrificed at the full moon and I will not have you destroy years of preparation with a childish tantrum! I will have my freedom and you will have your immortality, and enough power to conqueror all the lands. But you WILL leave the girl alone until she is needed."

Toyotomi rose unsteadily to his feet, his body shaking with rage. His eyes flashed and he snarled.

"You promised I could break the slayer, you PROMISED!"

"I promised you could satisfy your perverted sexual lusts, but you, in your uncontrollable paroxysm, almost killed her. Now you get nothing. I will not have her damaged. This ritual is too important."

He crossed his arms and frowned like a petulant child.

"What if I refuse to set up the ritual? What would you do then?" Another roar filled the room and Toyotomi found himself dangling three feet off the ground with an invisible hand wrapped around his wind pipe. He clawed at his throat, but he could not alleviate the pressure.

"Do not test me; you will not like the result." He was abruptly released and the Lord of the Southern lands found himself lying on his bedroom floor, gasping for breath. When he'd collected himself enough to draw air he hoarsely cried for his guards.

The demons lumbered in and he pointed to Sango's prone form.

"Throw her in the cell next to the monk."

Sango's head was swimming and just as the boar faced demon bent down to throw her over his shoulder she blacked out. Her palm loosened, but luckily the sutra was still clutched in her hand. It was the only thing keeping the Lord away from her. The guard adjusted his burden and headed down the hall, leaving his master muttering and whining on the floor.

* * *

Miroku shivered under his heavy robes and felt the boy huddle closer to him, trying to absorb his warmth. He glanced down at the lad, noted his flimsy yukata, and threw his arm and the folds of his robe around him. He smiled up at him, grateful.

"How long you think we've been here?"

Miroku considered the question carefully. There were no windows and no light to discern how long they'd been sitting in the dark, but the heavy shadows had ebbed and flowed at least twice. He and boy had also dozed at intermittent intervals and now the shadows seemed to be growing steadily more oppressive as the hours passed.

"A day and a half at least and right now I think it might be dusk or near it," he replied. Michi nodded and fell silent, rubbing his hands together for warmth and trying to ignore the rumbling in his stomach.

The silence stretched and Miroku found his mind returning to Sango. When they'd first been thrown into this cell he'd spent the first few hours trying to find a weakness in the construction, someway, anything that he could exploit so that they could escape. Sango had consumed his thoughts and he had been deathly afraid of what they might be doing to her.

He tried to assure himself that the sutra he'd left with her would protect her. He had a long held theory that whatever it was that bound her to him (Love, lust, spirituality…kindred souls) made them stronger. Thus, it stood to reason that his power would recognize her and act accordingly.

The problem was that he'd never tested his theory under such dire conditions.

_Stop…just stop. You can do nothing about it now. Focus on the immediate problem. Focus on getting out of here._

Toyotomi was no fool. The cell he'd been tossed into was not only solid, but it was saturated with demonic aura. There would be no escape until someone decided to let them out. When he'd realized the truth he'd had a brief, insane moment when he simply thought of unleashing the wind tunnel and damning the consequences. It was only the presence of the boy that kept him from that bit of insanity.

He could feel a dull ache throbbing in his chest, but he resisted the urge to rub it away. He couldn't get they way Toyotomi had looked at her out of his mind and he could only imagine what he might be doing to her at this very moment. He knew his taijiya; she would rather die than let that bastard violate her.

He suppressed his shudder. He couldn't think like that, he couldn't, wouldn't think...

He sent up another prayer, begging Kami to keep her safe. As if reading his mind Michi asked.

"Do you think Sango is all right?" Miroku stilled and kept his face impassive. He didn't want to scare him.

"I don't know. I pray to Kami she is." Michi's gaze turned downcast as he contemplated the floor with sad eyes.

"I hope..." He didn't continue and Miroku instinctively knew the boy was thinking about his sister and what had happened to the other women Toyotomi had…

Miroku had to swallow past his suddenly dry throat and took a moment to blink back the moisture on his eyelashes, moisture that felt suspiciously like tears. He turned his head away.

"Michi," he said quietly, "give me the sutra I placed in your right front pocket."

Confused the boy looked down at his kimono and dug around, surprised when his fingers curled around the delicate gold leaf paper. He was even more shocked when he pulled it free.

"What…how…" The monk smiled.

"I'm magic remember?"

Michi gazed at him wide eyed and Miroku had to fight to suppress his chuckle as he rose unsteadily to his feet and started walking around the cell they'd been thrown into. He started methodically tapping on the walls yet again, looking for any sort of weakness.

Just as before, he could find nothing. He looked down at the golden paper and resisted the urge to crumple it into a ball and scream. He could feel the hum of the collected spiritual power of all those powerful monks, thrumming beneath his fingertips and right now it did him not one wit of good.

Could the sutra dispel the aura in the cell? Quite possibly. The problem was that he wasn't all together sure just what would happen if her were to lay this deceptively innocent looking paper against the stones and activate it. The monks had given them to him not only as a reward, but for one fairly distinct purpose.

They were a means to protect those around him if the worst were to happen. He'd already wasted on his journey here; dare he waste the other on such a slim chance of escape? Gods, he wanted to. Despite his better judgment he wanted to tear this cell to ribbons with his wind tunnel, find Sango, and get her and the boy as far from here as was humanly possible.

Ruthlessly, he crushed the feeling. That was his emotional reaction to Sango's possible distress talking, not the cool rationality of his strategist's mind. The facts remained that he was weakened by the aura, he didn't know how many guards stood beyond these walls, had absolutely no idea where they'd taken his taijiya, and would likely get himself and Michi killed if he attempted to put into to action the only plan he'd been able to come up with.

_Patience Miroku, patience. You're opportunity will come._

Thoughts troubled, he started tapping the walls again. When he reached the far end of the cell he rapped his knuckles against the stone and pulled back in surprise when an answering knock responded to his.

"Who's there," he said, wondering if his voice would carry through the wall. A tentative, "Miroku?" was his answer.

He started and eagerly pressed his un-cursed palm against the wall. Gods, she was in the cell next to him. So close but so far she might as well have been on the next continent. Still his hopes stirred. This might be the opportunity he'd been waiting for, but first.

"Sango, Kami I was so worried. Are you injured? Where did Toyotomi take you? D-Did he…"

She hesitated for the briefest moment and replied, "I'm fine, Miroku. He didn't hurt me."

Miroku paused and narrowed his eyes. He knew she was being less than truthful with him.

"Taijiya, tell me what happened." Silence stretched again and even though he couldn't see her, he could picture her perfectly. She was probably biting her lower lip, debating how much to tell him, and he felt his tension mount with each passing second. His right hand twitched.

_Calm monk, stay calm, don't do something rash._

"Sango," he almost whispered. "Please."

He could feel her relent and braced himself for the impact of her words.

"He…beat me up a bit, but I'll heal." Miroku went eerily still and felt a slow burning rage churn in his gut. His iron control thrummed and he knew he was on the verge of snapping.

"Did he…."

She cut him off quickly. "No!" And then quieter, "no. He didn't…he couldn't touch me because of the sutra you left with me."

His relief was instantaneous. His left hand convulsed against the stone and he rested his forehead against the wall.

_Thank the gods, _he thought. _Praise Kami…I don't know what I would have…_

To her he replied.

"Good…that's good."

His spiritual power had protected her. He had hoped that would be the case, but he hadn't been assured of his success. It was a vastly liberating to be proved correct in his assumption that their bond made him stronger, instead of simply feeling it.

He stayed like that a moment more, letting the feeling spread through him, and he'd just parted his lips to ask his taijiya if she had any idea how they were going to get out of this one, when he heard a door open. Sango screamed and his stomach dropped.

"Sango!" No answer. Frantic he pounded his fists against the wall, "Sango answer me!"

He heard a struggle and heard her say, "Get off me! Let me go!"

Michi had jumped to his feet and joined Miroku.

"What's happening! What are they doing to her!"

He ignored the boy and briefly thought of simply pulling down the wall with his wind tunnel but thankfully he wasn't so far gone that he'd willingly do something so vastly stupid and desperate. He was, however, gone enough to throw his shoulder helplessly into the wall, even though he knew it was fruitless.

Miroku's spirit snapped and he reached for his prayer beads just as the door to his cell burst open. With a snarl he raised his hand and would have opened it had not five demons rushed him. The first one slammed the butt of his spear against his head.

He crumpled to the ground, insensible, with the echo of Sango's screams ringing in his ears.


	28. Despair

"_**I know indeed what evil I intend to do, but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury, fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils."**_

_**Euripides**__** - Medea**_

Night had fallen. Isamu stood on the wall with Hotaka and the archers and watched the moon disappear as demon after demon filled the sky. On the ground he saw Tatsuo leading another horde on foot.

The fight was at their door.

His gaze shifted to the gates and the outer edges of the wall where InuYasha, Sesshomaru, and Kagome (much to the hanyou's displeasure) stood shoulder to shoulder and faced them in a twisted version of what Kagome would call a Mexican standoff.

All the creatures and normal sounds associated with living on a remote mountain top in the middle of vast forestland seemed to have stilled and the silence was even more deafening because of it. The barrier hummed behind the silence like a steady heartbeat, bringing comfort and courage to their small band of hunters, mikos, and demons, both whole and half.

The ronin glanced back and felt his heart skip a beat. Riko stood within the protective glow of Komaku's power, next to Lady Kaede, Kohaku, and Shippo. She had his daughter in her arms while Benji clutched her hand. Unable to dwell on the significance of the picture they made when he was about to engage in a battle he might not survive he shifted his eyes.

His gaze came to rest on the tallest of the boys. They had stationed Lady Sango's brother with the elderly miko and the healer to help defend the wounded if Tatsuo's horde managed to break through the barrier.

He saw the light of conviction shining in the young slayer's own brown gaze and the determined lift to his chin. Kohaku nodded to the ronin and Isamu nodded back. It was as good as a spoken promise, and despite Kohaku's turbulent personality the ronin trusted him.

He'd told Lady Sango many times that even though Naraku had taken something of the boy she'd known, he was still her brother. They both held the honor, conviction, courage, and sheer stubborn will and fortitude of her parents, her ancestors, her people. Naraku might have damaged him, but he did not take his soul.

Isamu had decided long ago that the piece of the boy that echoed Lady Sango was the piece that he saw the most, and thus he had earned the right to be trusted.

In the grand scheme of things it was probably one of his safer options at the moment. Isamu turned and waited for the other shoe to drop. He didn't have to wait long.

"Tatsuo you pansy ass bastard! I'm gonna rip your head off!"

Isamu smirked. Subtly, the hanyou never had any aptitude for it.

The evil thing that Tatsuo had become gave a chilling smile.

"Attack," he said, almost too quietly to be heard. Hotaka called the archers ready and then gave the command to aim and fire. A hail of arrows blackened the sky and the squishy sound of youkai bone and demon flesh colliding echoed as they found their mark.

Demons dropped form the sky like swatted flies. Isamu drew his katana, motioned for those villagers that were to join him to follow and made his way to the gates to wait for the signal.

It came when the hanyou bellowed, "wind scar!" Isamu wasted no time. He and his small army burst through the gates and engaged the surprised horde as they erupted into the fray. Isamu dodged a boar faced demon as he swung a battle ax at his head and promptly ran the demon through before pivoting and slashing the monster that had tried to sneak up behind him. He turned again and in one deadly, fluid movement decapitated another.

Blood dripped from his sword and his kind eyes were hard and determined.

It had begun.

* * *

InuYasha fidgeted nervously next to his mate and his bastard half brother, ready to get this over and done with. Tatsuo stood beyond him and he shot the asshole a cocky, feral grin, making sure to bare a hint of fang.

His half brother would have rolled his eyes if he'd been anyone else, instead he simply settled for a disdainful glare. The hanyou did roll his eyes and dismissed the demon lord to rest his golden gaze on the girl to his left.

As if she felt his gaze on her she glanced at him through chocolate eyes and tilted her chin up in defiance. He scowled.

_Dammit, fuck, shit, motherfucker, _he thought and by the look in her orbs he was sure she knew exactly what he'd been thinking. She pursed her lips and shook her head imperceptibly and he cursed under his breath.

"I'm not going back under the barrier baka. I'm staying here." The, 'with you,' was implied and it did nothing to ease the vise gripping his heart.

His eyes traced her heart shaped face and tried not to remember the late and early morning hours he spent buried in her warmth, surrounded by her scent, and cradled in her love. He'd spilled his seed into her so many times, needing to reaffirm his position as her mate and protector in the face of his brother's ego crushing appearance.

Now though, he was speculating on what the results of their frantic mating could be. With a quick glance at her flat stomach he had a brief thrilling and terrifying image of that lovely surface rounded with his pups. He frowned and almost said something until he got a reminder that now was not the time.

A demon roared and his wayward thoughts moved back to the creepy possessed man in front of him. He said nothing but he bared his teeth again and Tatsuo smirked.

Much to InuYasha's dismay the things inside the fleshy corpse said only one word.

"Attack." It hissed out in a stream of echoing voices and flowed over their skin like a chilling caress. InuYasha watched the horde surge forward and without thinking he stepped in front of Kagome and bellowed, "wind scar!"

Tetsusaiga roared its displeasure and an arc of pure power swept through the demons, killing the first wave instantly. Unfortunately, like locusts swarming over a field, the wave behind them stepped over the scattered parts of their maimed comrades and fell upon them.

InuYasha snarled and brought his sword up to block the downward swipe of a battle ax and used his claw to gut the demon, twirled and took two more out with Tetsusaiga. He saw Isamu and the slayers he was leading burst through the gates and fall upon the horde, but he was only able to give them a passing thought.

With his peripheral senses he managed to keep an eye on Kagome as she drew her bow and launched blessed arrow after blessed arrow into the demons. His brother was also engaged, having done a graceful somersault over the heads of the demons, landing in their midst, and calling upon Tokijin to blast the wave attempting to flank him and engaging the rest with poisoned claws.

Graceful and deadly the daiyoukai cut a swath through the demons, but they just kept coming and coming and coming. InuYasha deflected another blow and ripped his claws through a demon, pivoted again and sent, 'blades of blood," into the lizard demon that had tried to flank Kagome.

His focus had narrowed to two purposes, protect Kagome and survive, but it felt like the horde was infinite.

Grimly he sent a backlash wave towards another legion and continued to fight as if he were the last angel standing between an overwhelming tide trying to escape through the gates of hell. He twisted, decapitated a demon, whirled, ran one through, and pivoted again just in time to watch in horror as a demon behind Kagome shoved his sword through her gut.

His world tilted and he watched in slow motion as her chocolate eyes went wide, blood bubbled at her lips, and her bow fell from limp fingers. She fell forward to her knees and collapsed on the ground.

A red haze of rage colored the hanyou's eyes and his demon clawed at his essence, demanding to be set free. He threw his head back and roared, causing the demons around him to halt and instinctively cower before him.

The blood chilling howl had only been heard by a few of them once before when InuYasha's father, the Great Dog Demon, found his human mate murdered in her bed. It was the howl of a grief so profound that only those who have loved deeply would have been able to understand.

It struck terror in the horde, and as the sound faded InuYasha gazed upon his gathered enemies with red tinged eyes and growled, low, soft, and menacing.

"You will all die."

He stuck his claws into the nearest demon and ripped out his heart. They watched in fascination as the misshapen organ beat a few times and the body fell back. For the first time since the battle had begun, Tatsuo's horde was afraid.

* * *

Miroku felt like his head was going to explode at any moment. Groaning, he pushed his aching body up, only to be jerked back down. Confused and disoriented he looked at his hands and found them chained to a large stone. He shook his head a bit to clear it and finally the pieces of the picture morphed into something his brain was able to comprehend.

He was in a vast clearing and above him the blood red moon beat down on an altar positioned in the very center.

He focused his indigo eyes on the altar and felt like he'd been punched in the gut. Straining he yanked against his bonds and forcefully tried to move forward.

"Sango!" He yelled. The slayer, his beloved, looked up and met his gaze with fear filled cinnamon eyes.

"Miroku," she almost whispered and he pulled his chains again. A low chuckled answered him and a moment later Toyotomi stepped into the moonlight.

"Well, well…isn't this touching. I'm slightly disappointed in you monk, displaying your pathetic affection so blatantly. Don't you know that it is never a good idea to give your enemies such a blatant advantage?"

Miroku forced himself to calm down and sat cross legged in front of the bastard. He ignored the taunt and regarded him steadily.

"Why are we here, Toyotomi?"

The mad man tilted his head and smirked. "You mean why did I bother to keep you alive?"

Miroku inclined his head and Toyotomi's smirked widened while he linked his hands behind his back and leisurely circled him.

"Monk, your family history is fascinating. You, your father, your grandfather, all destined to be destroyed by a lithe body and a pretty face. It was a shame really, that even after Naraku cursed your line; you still managed to learn absolutely nothing from your grandfather's grievous mistake."

Miroku scowled. "And what, perchance, do you believe I was to learn from my grandfather's misfortune?"

Toyotomi raised an eyebrow. "Why, that women…all women, are truly only good for one thing and one thing only, and that if you allow a woman to have power over your emotions, as you have so obviously done, you allow yourself to become weak and malleable. I would wager that you would do anything to stop your little taijiya whore from being hurt…am I right?"

As if to test his theory he raised his hands and motioned one of his demon guards forward. The pig faced demon that'd secured her to the altar, drew his knife and slowly drew a thin line along the top of her thigh, cutting through her armor and causing blood to well. Sango clenched her teeth and refused to jerk her leg, knowing that if she did, it would only make the cut worse.

A low curse of, 'bastard," hissed through her teeth. Miroku was unable to contain his knee jerk reaction and attempted to lunge toward her only to be held back by his chains. Toyotomi chuckled.

"See…you're as predictable as your relatives. They too, were enchanted by beautiful women and it brought them nothing but heartache."

Sango breathed through the pain, seeing the look of absolute rage on her monk's face, and yelled. "Miroku, don't listen to him. He's trying to bait you into doing something foolish."

Disgusted with himself and his complete lack of control when it came to all things pertaining to Sango he forced himself to back down, but not before meeting her eyes and silently promising to get them out of this. He pulled his gaze away from her and looked at the Lord.

"You speak of the women that accompanied my father and grandfather on their respective quests. You killed them."

An indecipherable look crossed Toyotomi's face, a look that was equal parts gleeful and knowing. Creeping forward, he grabbed Miroku's chin and yanked his face close. In the background Sango commanded him to let him go, but he ignored her.

"No monk…I did not kill them. I simply provided the blade and your father and grandfather took care of the ritual for me."

A choking revulsion gripped Miroku's chest. "No," he breathed. "It can't be," and then much louder he snarled. "You lie!"

Toyotomi reached into his ornate kimono pulled out a small vial, pop the stopper, forced Miroku's mouth open, and spilled the contents down his throat. He pulled out of Toyotomi's grasp sputter and hacking, trying to keep the vile liquid out of his blood stream.

Calmly, his enemy placed the empty vial back in his pockets and look down at Miroku in amusement.

"Love is a powerful force…one of the greatest in the universe some would say. When that bond is betrayed it creates a flux in the energies of the world. You will kill the one you love the most, like your father and your father's father. With each death my master comes closer to the freedom he craves and with this final sacrifice…he will reign once more. You will bring about a new world, a new era…and all because you had the impunity to fall in love. It's very…poetic."

Miroku was struggling in earnest now, but soon he felt his head begin to swim and it wasn't long before the black bitter poison rendered him once again into unconsciousness.

The last thing he heard before letting the darkness take him was Sango weeping his name in terror.

* * *

Lord Sesshomaru swiped Tokijin through the air with an impassive, bored look on his handsome face.

"Vermin," he muttered and swiped again, sending an energy wave and dispatching another wave of demons. He felt the pull to his east and turned his head slightly to watch his half-mad, half-brother send wave, after wave, after wave, of attacks from Tetsusaiga into the never ending horde.

He turned again and saw the human woman, the one he owed his life debt to, surrounded by the ronin and his archers while they defended her broken body from further harm. Tenseiga pulsed and sang to him and he frowned deeply as he flawlessly dispatched another group of demons without breaking a sweat.

The sword was pulling him away from the miko and he knew why. It was telling him that it had already saved her once. This time…she was on her own.

The thought troubled him slightly and he found it surprising. Still, he was never one to lie to himself. After all, a man was only as good as his understanding and he was willing to admit that he was not the same youkai he was before meeting Rin.

Rin…how one small, human girl held such power over him was a mystery, one that he did not wish to dwell on. He'd chosen to protect the girl. His reasons were both simple, profound, and entirely his own, and they did not require him to look any deeper than that.

With an elegant shrug he returned to the battle. She was still alive and as such he was still bound to his word. Even if it appeared she would not last much longer.

With a flick of his wrist he killed three more demons.

"Amateurs," he muttered, killed another two, and walked deeper into the haze of battle.


	29. The Battle Rages

_**Now I've heard there was a secret chord -- That David played, and it pleased the Lord-- But you don't really care for music, do you? -- It goes like this -- The fourth, the fifth -- The minor fall, the major lift -- The baffled king composing Hallelujah.**_

_**Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah**_

Kaede felt Kagome's soul as it struggled to leave its torn body. She was sitting cross-legged in front of the convalescence hut, while the villagers assigned to assist Riko dragged the wounded off the walls and stacked them knee deep inside. The injured and dying were growing in number, and as the battle raged the elderly miko was starting to feel the strain.

In that split second between Kagome being run through and her soul passing to the underworld, Kaede did something foolish. She used her and Komoku's mingled power to anchor the girl's soul and caused the barrier to flicker. Sweat pouring down her brow, limbs shaking, she managed to stabilize the rift, but the damage had been done. Demons poured in and she could feel their auras as they drew nearer.

"Kohaku, Shippo." She rasped. Both boys had been near, assisting a villager with laying a wounded man on one of the many tatami mats that litter the ground. They lay their burden down, whipped around, and swiftly made it to her side.

"Lady Kaede, are you all right?" Shippo asked.

Instead of answering and without opening her eyes or breaking her concentration, she reached out and grasped Kohaku's arm in stiff fingers. He jerked, but her grip was too tight and he couldn't pull away.

"The demons come. Ye must protect the wounded, but first, child, ye must send Riko to me. Now! Make haste!"

Kohaku nodded once and sprinted away.

When he was gone the elderly miko addressed the fox kit. "How powerful has ye fox magic become?"

He swallowed nervously. How to answer that? Lord Sesshomaru had been working with him, at Rin's insistence he was sure, but he still wasn't sure…

Steeling his features he gritted his teeth. He wasn't a little kid anymore and even though he had moments of immaturity, he knew he needed to be a man right now.

"I can distract them and depending on how powerful they are, I c-can k-kill some of them."

He could, he knew. He didn't want to, but Sesshomaru had taught him how to infuse his mushrooms with poison. He hadn't liked it at first. After all a fox demon's magic's purpose was to dissemble and confuse, not kill. He'd seen the necessity though, when Sesshomaru had pointed out that to protect, sometimes one had to kill.

He'd been looking steadily at Rin.

"Go, set ye traps. Kohaku will be along."

His face far too grim and determined for one so young, the fox kit scampered away.

Kaede toiled to steady her breathing and waited.

* * *

Kohaku burst into the hut and glanced desperately around for the healer. He spotted the harried woman wrapping a man's severed limb to staunch the heavy flow of blood. He made his way towards her as quickly as he could.

"Riko!" She didn't acknowledge him and so he said louder. "Lady Riko!" The healer frowned.

"What is it?" She snapped; her gaze intent on her work. He resisted the urge to tug on her arm, afraid that if he did, he would hurt the severely wounded man even more.

"Lady Kaede needs you. It's urgent." She grunted and with a frustrated growl spat.

"This is urgent. If I can't stop the bleeding then this man will die." She tugged the gauze tighter and finished tying off the knot and was about to turn to the next patient when Kohaku stepped in front of her and grasped her wrist.

"You don't understand. Some of the demons have breeched the barrier. You must come with me!"

She gasped and looked from Kohaku to the wounded and back again, clearly torn. Mika, the shy villager girl who had not only stood up to Tatsuo's men, but had instantly volunteered to help Riko when she'd asked for volunteers, stepped forward with a determined look on her pretty face.

"Lady Riko, go with Kohaku. You've taught me how to handle these injures. I will fill in for you until you can return."

Riko opened her mouth to protest, but Kohaku grew impatient and tugged her towards the door. "There's no time. Mika, thank you. Lady Riko, you must come with me now!"

Reluctantly, she allowed the young man to drag her away and found herself in front of Lady Kaede. The elderly miko pulled her close while Kohaku took up a defensive position near them.

The old woman was soaked to the bone and the trembling in her body had become more pronounced.

"Lady Kaede!" Riko exclaimed, her concern evident. She waved it away.

"I'll be fine, child. Ye must listen careful. Young Kagome has fallen, and I do not know how much longer I will be able to keep her soul anchored to her body and still keep channeling Komoku's power. Ye must find her."

Riko recoiled. Kagome had fallen? It was almost ludicrous. The girl had always appeared to live a charmed existence, and now Kaede was telling her that not only was she hurt, but Kaede was holding onto the thin threads of her waning spirit, keeping it from passing into the underworld.

"Where? Where is she Lady Kaede?"

The elderly woman drew in a ragged breath. "Beyond the gates. Hurry, she will not last much longer."

Riko nodded and ran off, leaving Kohaku with the old miko. The slayer's brother stood ready, his senses alive. He didn't have to wait long. Out of the night, the demons who'd slipped through the barrier descended and with a cry he threw his scythe and cut through the two that attacked them. The razor sharp, sickle shaped blade cut through sinew and bone, decapitating the demons cleanly and returned. He expertly caught the handle.

He rolled to the side as another monstrous demon with a face that resembled rotting meat swung a large sword and tried to cut him in two. The instinct that had been guiding him started to fine tune and he felt more than saw the jewel in is back begin to pulse. A strange numbness came upon him and his vision narrowed to one object.

Kill…kill everything that threatened him; that threaten his village. Turn the streets red with blood. Quick as lightening, the fit was upon him and in a blind rage he roared and drove his blade into the demon's chest and driving him back into his fellows, causing them to topple like dominos. He ripped the blade free with a wet pop and twisted into a round house kick, catching the demon behind him and sending him flying before pivoting and cleaving another from groin to neck.

His world became the kill and kill he did, over and over again. It was times like these; when he felt the darkness that Naraku had left in his soul consume him, that he was reminded that he was no longer human. It grieved him to recognize it, to know that he would never again be the boy his sister had told him about. The one she still believed lived inside him.

Kohaku knew better. That boy was dead and this hollow, rage filled void was all that remained. He wanted to kill, enjoyed killing. He was and forever would be a monster and if that was what it took to keep those that his sister loved safe, then he would allow the beast to rip, tear, feast.

With a garbled cry he shoved the blade into a charging demon's shoulder, and ripped it through its torso, cutting it in half. The fish faced demon made a horrible sound and erupted in a gusher of blood, coating Kohaku.

Demons came and demons died. The part of Kohaku that had been damaged by Naraku gloried in it. He was past lucidity, well into blind blood lust when a cry that seemed close, but so far away, caught his attention. He turned and the other part of him, the part that was still Sango's baby brother rose inside him and pushed back the haze.

"Chie," he whispered, and then louder. "Chie!"

The girl's head whipped around and Kohaku surged forward, intent on reaching her before the gaping maw of the snake demon could descend and devour her. When she saw him she screamed, but he didn't have time to worry about scaring her.

With a last burst of speed and a quick twist he stepped in front of her, and cried out in agony when a poisonous fang buried itself in his shoulder. He dropped limply to his knees drove his scythe into the scales, ripping the demon's guts out. The heavy weight of the monster collapsed upon him and he rolled his body to the side, throwing the iridescent body off.

Panting he collapsed onto the hard earth, breathing heavy.

Tentatively, Chie approached the fallen boy and with a shaky hand brushed his blood soaked hair away from his face.

"K-Kohaku?" He opened one blurry dark eye and whispered.

"It's okay, Chie. You're safe." He then fell unconscious. Panicked, Chie knelt down and pushed at his shoulder trying to rouse him.

"Kohaku." He didn't answer, and then more franticly. "Kohaku!" Tears started streaming down her face and she pushed at his shoulder in earnest now. "Kohaku wake up! Please wake up."

A small, awed voice to her left pulled her attention away from the fallen slayer.

"Did you see him kill the snake man! That was awesome." Chie looked up and threw herself at her best friend. Benji wrinkled his nose, but he knew that Chie was scared so he didn't push her away like he normally would have.

"Benji what's wrong with him. He won't wake up." Benji frowned down thoughtfully at the fallen slayer and said suddenly.

"He got bite by the snake thingy." A crazy idea occurred to him. He pulled away from Chie and looked at her earnestly. "I bet he was poisoned! Like what happened to Sugi when he got bit by that black adder. Come Chie, I have an idea."

* * *

In the distance they heard the pop of multiple explosions.

Shippo dodged and threw three mushrooms at the three demons charging him. They exploded and a green ball of gas erupted. The demons inhaled, froze, and started hacking and swaying before falling down dead.

The fox kit didn't have time to be horrified by what he'd done. That would come later.

More demons came and he reached into his kimono and pulled out some leaves. Throwing them he cried, "bunshin." A dozen Shippos appeared and the already befuddled demons stopped and haphazardly attacked the imposters, watching in confusion as they disappeared with a pop.

Amidst the chaos, the kitsune dropped another mushroom, but this time only two of the five, fell. The others were weakened though, as if they'd abruptly become ill.

He was getting tired, and thus the poison was getting weaker as it was fueled by his magic. He threw his illusionary top at another monster, and watched as it pinned him to the ground, but he knew it wouldn't hold long.

He was about to retreat and regroup when a snarling, wolf faced demon leapt out of the darkened doorway of a nearby hut, hit him, and pinned him. Shippo cried out as the demon's claws dug into his shoulders and he felt blood start to drip.

"Get off me you big bully," he whined. The demon's jaw snapped over yellow teeth.

"I always liked kitsunes, they're very tasty."

Shippo started struggling. "Get off!" He yelled and managed to wiggle his hand free enough to grab one of his mushrooms and push it into the demon's face.

His expression turned comical as he held his breath while the demon started sputtering. By now though, the poison was so weak that all it did was irritate the wolf's eyes. Shippo scrambled away, jumped up on top of a barrel, and pulled himself up on a nearby roof.

"Take that, you meanie," he taunted. The demon, less than pleased, roared and attacked him. The kit yelped and jumped to the side just as a dagger flew by his head. He was threw another set of leaves, watched them exploded into many Shippos, and bounded away in the ensuing melee. He'd thought he'd escaped and was whistling when he rounded the corner, only to be slammed against the wall of the hut. A claw had shot out of the dark and wrapped around his neck.

Bushy fox tail twitching like mad, Shippo looked wide-eyed into the glowing orbs of his attacker. He hadn't counted on the wolf's sense of smell.

"Got you now, pup." The kitsune couldn't come back with a snappy retort, he was too busy turning blue.

His tail twitched faster and his legs kicked. Kami…he was going to die! B-But he couldn't die! If he wasn't around who would Kagome have to look after? Who would be around to annoy InuYasha and keep him in his place? Who'd be there to make Sango laugh when she got too sad and who'd be there to steal Miroku's food when the monk finally came back to them? Plus…Rin would kill him if he allowed himself to die.

He kept struggling, but he could feel his body getting weaker and weaker. His tail slowed as a fuzzy haze danced behind his eyelids.

Just when he felt blackness touch him the grip on his throat suddenly loosened. He dropped to the ground gagging, and watched in fascination as the demon fell to the side. Confused, he studied the prone body and to his surprise found an arrow sticking out of its back. He looked up and saw the second youngest village slayer, Hotaka, with his bow still pointed at him and his hand still hovering near the string he'd used to unleash the shaft. He was grinning.

He stood suddenly, hopped down off the roof, and swaggered over to the fox kit. Shippo was still trying to breath properly. Chuckling, Hotaka lifted him unto his back and said.

"Come pup, let's get you to the healers."

* * *

By the time they reached the convalescence hut, Shippo was breathing much easier. Hotaka was grateful. He would have hated to be the one to explain to Lady Kagome that her little ward had been killed. He smiled slightly as he pushed open the door.

"Well have you right as rain again, fox, just you…." He trailed off and in his horror allowed Shippo to slid off his back.

"Hotaka, what is…" The kitsune also trailed off as he took in the scene before him.

Three demons had made it inside and they were in the process of methodically killing off the injured. Hotaka's focus, however, wasn't on the two walking around the room. His focused had narrowed to the scared, weeping girl who was currently being held pressed, back to front, against a bear demon, while he held a knife to her pale throat.

"M-Mika," the slayer breathed.

"Hotaka!" She cried and yelped when the demon dug the knife deeper. A thin trickle of blood slid down her neck. Hotaka growled and started forward, but the demon stopped him.

"Come any closer and I'll kill her." He stopped short and felt panic in his gut.

"Let her go, you bastard." The bear chuckled.

"I don't think so, human." And just to goad him into foolish action he snaked his tongue out and licked the path the blood had taken. Mika shivered in revulsion and Hotaka's grip on his bow tightened.

"Hmmm tasty. I wonder what other parts of her are tasty. Maybe I should find out?"

Hotaka was on the verge of letting blind rage lead him. He was shaking, all his muscles were tense, and all he could see was Mika and her tormentor. It was the kitsune who brought him back by using the little knife Rin had given him and stabbing him in the thigh.

The pinprick of pain brought the slayer's attention out of it's tunnel and he focused on the fox kit.

"If I distract them can you shoot them?" He whispered. Hotaka looked from the fox to the demons and whispered.

"Yes…I never miss."

Shippo nodded, reached into his kimono, drew out his other mushrooms, and threw them, bellowing, "Fox magic!"

Twenty to thirty mushrooms scattered across the room and started wailing. The demons that had been killing the injured, roared, dropped their lances, and covered their ears.

Hotaka's hand's blurred. He notched three arrows, turned the bow to it's side, calculated his angles, and fired. The shafts flew true, the first caught one of the demons in the heart, the second caught another in the neck, and the third…

The third found it's mark in the middle of the bear demon's eye and lodged itself through his brain. Hotaka watched dispassionately as the demon teetered, his arm went limp, and he fell.

Mika ran to him and he caught her in his arms. "Thank Kami, Hotaka, thank Kami you're all right."

His lips twitched. Typically Mika. She has a knife at her throat and she's more worried about him. He caught her chin with his finger tips and tilted her face up to his.

"Gods, I love you, you little idiot." Her eyes went wide and she squeaked just as his mouth slanted over hers. She froze in surprise, and not a little bit of fear, before the feel of his soft lips registered. Slowly, the tension left her body and she shyly started kissing him back.

Hotaka ignored the gagging sounds the fox kit was making. He'd been wanting this for far too long to let them bother him.

When he tangled his rough hand in her silky hair and tilted he head to deepen the kiss she gasped. He used the opportunity to steal a taste of her warmth with his tongue. A moment or an hour later, she wasn't sure which, he released her and stared down at her with heavy lidded eyes. He smirked.

"Kami, I've been wanting to do that for a long, long time."

She blushed. "H-Hotaka?" His smile softened and he brushed her cheek with his fingers.

"I know, we'll talk about it later. You've got wounded to tend to."

"Y-Yes," she stammered and brought her attention back to the room around her. Shippo stood next to the slayer, shaking his head.

"Humans…"

* * *

Riko picked up a discarded sword and ran screaming at the demon in front of her, using the point of the sword like a battering ram and pushing it into flesh. It roared and stumbled, tumbling three of its comrades and Riko nimbly skirted around them.

"Almost there," she murmured and flinched when an arrow whizzed by her head. She yelped loudly and the sound of a large body hitting the ground reached her ears. She turned and found a lizard demon with a youkai bone arrow buried in its chest. Shuddering she looked up and met Isamu's anger eyes.

Images erupted in her head. Him lowering his head and wrapping his firm lips around her naked breasts. Her taking him in her hand stroking him, him with his head buried between her thighs, the look on his face when he entered her, and the tenderness and love in his touch when he held her afterwards.

It was the wrong place and the absolutely worst time, but she couldn't help herself. She hadn't felt so gloriously alive in years and seeing him, whole, covered in blood that she instinctively knew wasn't his, was like an answer to her fearful prayers. She ran over to him and clasped his arm, her fingers trembling.

"Isamu…"

"Get behind me!" He snarled, pushed her with in the ring of soldiers and slashed his katana viciously through a charging demon. She swallowed and shook herself.

_Stupid, stupid, you're in the middle of a war idiot! Get it together!_

Thoroughly berating herself, she jumped when she felt his hand on her arm.

"Dammit Riko, what the hell are you doing here!"

The worry and fear in his eyes made his tone sharper than he intended, and because she knew the reason for his high handiness, she managed to bank down her anger.

"No time, just keep doing what you're doing. I need to see to Kagome."

"Riko…" he started to growl, but she shook her head.

"There's no time Isamu. Please, I trust you to protect us…just do it!"

His lips thinned to a grim line, but he nodded and turned back to the battle. She immediately dropped to her knees next to Kagome and winced. The wound was bad and she knew that it if wasn't for lady Kaede's power her young friend would be dead.

Chocolate eyes fluttered and the miko whispered. "Riko?" Tears stinging her eyes she brushed the tangled brown locks away from the girl's forehead and muttered.

"Lay still, Kagome. I need to try and treat your wound." Too weak to argue, she nodded slightly, and her eyes started to close, but before she retreated once again to the blissful, pain free world of unconsciousness, she murmured.

"InuYasha…"

Riko wiped her eyes, bit back a ruthless curse, and spat.

"Kill him InuYasha. Kill him painfully."

Feeling the weight of the hopeless task before her, Riko went to work, knowing that it was already too late.

* * *

InuYasha only wanted to kill, it was his only thought, but unlike Kohaku's who's blood lust was a blind, wild animal, InuYasha's was clear, precise, and purposeful. They'd injured his mate. They were all going to die. Cleaving a swath of blood, sinew, and bone, he worked his way through the hordes and found himself face to face with the man, the monster, who started it all.

"Tatsuo!" He roared in fury. The possessed man turned to him.

"Our master feasts; our master grows stronger, the sacrifice approaches. You will all perish."

Rage, white and hot, erupted in his body and he tightened his grip on his fang.

"The only one dying around here is you!"

He attacked, and out of no where Tatsuo drew a pitch black katana and blocked his blow. Stunned, the hanyou blinked and felt bile rise in his throat. The black blade was caked with blood and he could hear it screaming in agony.

"What the hell!"

Tatsuo smirked. "Hell…such a prosaic term, and one not fit to describe the torment that awaits you. We think of all the hells imagined by mortal man and we find the Christians and the Greeks to have created the most…disturbing and perhaps closest models to the void in which we will send you all. Eternal fire, eternal torment, meals for our master."

He paused and met InuYasha's golden eyes with his obsidian ones.

"Your miko will suffer the greatest. We will ensure it."

InuYasha snarled and swiped his sword again, Tatsuo blocked it easily. On and on they traded blow after blow after blow, and despite the power he threw into each thrust, this thing blocked every single one. Panting, InuYasha regrouped and reckless yelled.

"Backlash wave!"

The power burst from Tetsusaiga and earth and trees exploded. InuYasha coughed and tried to blink back the film from the dust cloud he'd kicked up, only to stare in disbelief. Tatsuo walked out of the aftermath, on a cloud of oily black power, without a scratch on him.

"No way," he muttered. Tatsuo smirked…it was unpleasant.

The disembodied voices of legion started speaking all at once.

"My turn."

A black wave of power flew from the tainted blade in his hand, hit the hanyou square in the chest and sent him flying hard into a tall, hardwood tree. He hit the unyielding bark and his body flopped to the ground. His fingers loosened and Tetsusaiga fell from his grasp. Several seconds passed and he lay there unmoving, while Tatsuo/Legion advanced.

He stopped and looked down at the half breed, raised his sword, and murmured some more archaic words. The black blade started to pulse red and lightening cracked around him, barely missing the hanyou.

Tatsuo/Legion raised the sword. "Time to die."

The cosmos sucked in a ragged breath and held.


	30. Lover’s Sacrifice

_**I don't wanna see the day, my words cannot make it safe -- Her heart in my hands, it's too bad, no regrets... -- I don't wanna see the day, her tears are falling on my grave -- This is my one chance, to take back, no regrets...**_

_**The Fall of Troy -- F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X.**_

Miroku came slowly back to consciousness and shook his head to clear the cobwebs, instantly regretting it as pain exploded behind his eyes.

"I really, really need to stop doing that," he muttered. He didn't attempt to stand this time, having a vague recollection of what happened the last time he tried such a thing, and simply waited for the fog in his brain to clear. Slowly, but surely, the haze started to dissipate and he sat up straighter.

The first thing he noticed was the blood red moon hanging in the pitch black sky, the next thing he noticed was the chanting. He struggled to his knees and instinctively brought his hand to his face, rubbing it over his weary features, and rocked back, stunned.

He was no longer chained. Gingerly, he pushed himself to his feet and swayed before righting himself. His mind froze, unable to completely process what he was seeing. Sango was still chained to the altar, her cinnamon eyes wide and her mouth open in screaming defiance, but he could hear nothing, nothing at all.

Around her in a wide circle, stood the women they'd discovered and Mari, Michi's sister. They were dressed in ceremonial kimonos and their pulsating bellies had been exposed. Miroku watched in horror as the pulsating offspring withered and quivered under their flesh and saw the skin underneath start to glow a sickly shade of green. Mesmerized, he remained riveted as the chanting grew louder and louder and louder.

He covered his ears, the volume becoming painful. Abruptly, it reached a crescendo and a loud ripping sound was heard as deformed, ugly demons ripped out of the girls' wombs, mewling and making sounds not unlike nails scrapping down a chalkboard.

The girls all dropped simultaneously, their blood staining the ground. Miroku opened his mouth to scream, but someone beat him to it. He glanced to his right and saw Michi; his eyes reflect the pain of a thousand lifetimes, as he gazed in horrified fascination at the deformed lump that was now feasting on his sister's blood.

"Mari! Kami no, please no, Mari!"

Miroku made a move to step towards the boy, to shield him but Toyotomi's voice echoed across the field, halting him.

"The beasts are born, the ground is stained with innocent blood…let the sacrifice begin!"

He started muttering, twisted, harsh words from a language that was never meant to be spoken on earth. Miroku's head started to spin again and a strange heat started pulsing in his gut. The same green light that had been inside the dead girl's now pulsed in his abdomen and he felt his mind fade.

He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and snapped them open again, desperate to keep his wits, and paused.

The field was gone and in its place a sunny spring meadow had replaced the horrific vision of dead innocents and his beloved chained to an altar. Beyond him he saw Goshinboku as he never seen it before. InuYasha's forest was gone and the god tree stood proud and strong and very, very alone.

Under the towering tree he watched a familiar, yet altered scenario taking place. One he'd never forget as long as he lived. His friends sat under Goshinboku, picnicking and laughing while he stood apart clenching his cursed hand and cursing the gods.

It was a recreation of the day he'd left them for parts unknown and it was just as painful to watch two years later as it had been to live through. Kami, he looked so young, not that two years was all that long, but the way he felt now and the way he'd felt then…he might as well be an old man. His gaze was drawn as it always was to Sango. She sat next to her brother and that cautious optimism he loved so much glimmered in her cinnamon eyes.

Despair gripped his heart. He should never have left her, but what choice did he have? She was alive and although he'd broken her heart, his actions had more than likely saved her life. Miroku was no fool. He knew that unless someone was around to hold her back and keep her from him while his kazaana claimed him, she would have joined him in the void.

She would have tried to save him even though she would have known that once the void ripped, he would have been lost.

That was his Sango. She loved like no one he'd ever known, selflessly and with her whole heart. She may have learned to guard it well, but that only made the moments when he'd glimpsed her emotions that much sweeter to behold. Her walls never kept her from feeling.

Miroku shook his head. The nagging sense that something was wrong with this picture wouldn't leave him. He blinked and swayed.

Why was he seeing Sango like this? Why was he thinking of her in the past tense? She'd been with him, hadn't she? They had journeyed together, made love to each other, were on the verge of becoming something greater than they'd been before, weren't they?

He frowned and his head swam. He could have sworn…

Rapidly, the scene shifted again, and this time instead of laughing and smiling with their friends, Sango was a few feet away from him, withering naked on the ground and screaming while a man with long dark hair moved over her.

Pain gripped his chest and he screamed her name. The dark haired man looked up and his blood ran cold.

"Naraku," he whispered in revulsion and then louder, "Naraku!"

The demon that had cursed his family and tormented his dreams looked up at him with that annoyingly superior look and continued to pound his cock into Sango. She was screaming and crying and begging him to help her.

Again the sense of wrongness overtook him, but before he could follow the vague niggling notion, the demon fucking his beloved spoke.

"See monk, there is nothing you can possess which I can not take from you. Your grandfather, your father, your friends, and now…your vile and weak woman."

"I'll kill you!" Miroku yelled and Naraku smirked. "You have the means monk. Look in your left hand."

Confused, he looked down and discovered an ornate dagger the likes of which he'd never seen before gripped tightly in his fingers.

The sense of something not quite right came over him once more, but it was killed by Sango's sudden scream. Angered beyond reason, Miroku approached Naraku. Sango was sobbing now and he could here her calling his name, begging him.

"Yes monk, come closer, come and drive the dagger into my back."

As if in a trance and filled with white hot rage, Miroku approached the two. The sense that something was amiss was now beating against the back of his head, trying to stop him, but as he watched Naraku move between the slayer's legs. All reason fled.

Snarling much like InuYasha, Miroku raised the dagger and prepared to strike.

* * *

Sango struggled harder against her chains and screamed.

"Toyotomi, you bastard, what have you done to him!" The Lord stepped forward and gazed amusedly at the entranced monk as he moved towards her.

Sango could hear Michi in the background sobbing as if his heart had burst, but she couldn't allow herself to focus on him right now. Desperate, she started pleading, her eyes full of all the love and despair pouring from her bleeding heart.

"Miroku, please. This isn't you. You have to fight him Miroku. You must!"

The monk's indigo eyes, usually so full of mischief and life, gazed at her, dead…soulless. Sango pulled her chains and started thrashing.

"Dammit monk, come to your senses! You have to fight dammit!" She cursed him and begged him but nothing seemed to stop him from coming closer and closer with the razor sharp dagger. When he reached her side and raised the pointed steel, she closed her eyes tightly and mentally prepared herself. His hand quivered above her heart. He was preparing to strike the death blow.

She was going to die at the hands of the man she loved with all her heart and soul. Hysterical laughter churned in her gut, and she bit her lips to contain it. She bit so hard that blood tricked from the soft flesh and down her chin.

"Miroku…I love you," she whispered. Above her his arm started to descend and the dark, crushing evil flared to a crescendo. Sango murmured her goodbyes to the people she'd come to love. InuYasha, Shippo, Isamu and his little daughter, Riko and Benji, her beloved little brother, and lastly Kagome, the girl from the future who'd become the sister of her soul.

Her own soul rebelled at the travesty. She didn't want to die. Despite everything, the years of traveling with Miroku and watching him flirt with other women, her brother's worsening mental state, the death of her father and her people, her despair over Miroku's abandonment. Despite all of the heartache, she wanted to live.

Kami, it wasn't fair! She'd finally reached a point where she understood how precious the time she'd been given was, and it was about to be stolen from her by the man she'd given everything to.

She gritted her teeth. This couldn't be her fate. The gods would not be this cruel. In one final effort and a split second before the knife would have pierced her heart she gathered her breath and screamed to the heavens.

"Miroku, I love you! Fight for me!"

The knife tip pierced her flesh, she felt her body sag. It was too late, she'd hadn't reached him. Seconds ticked, and Sango waited, waited for the specter of unforgiving death to rip her shattered soul from her body, but as the moments passed she become aware of something.

There was only a pin prick of pain. Bewildered, she opened her eyes and gasped. Miroku was still above her, his biceps straining and his face flushed. She looked down and saw only the very tip of the blade embedded in her chest. It was the size of a bee sting. Awed, she met his gaze and hope bloomed full blown. He was fighting! He was fighting Toyotomi's hold on his psyche!

"That's it monk. Keep fighting him and when we get out of here I swear by Kami that I will spend as many nights as it takes, in the first inn we come to, fulfilling every lecherous fantasy you've ever had about me. And then of course you're going to fulfill your promise to me and marry me, wind tunnel or no."

A strained chuckle passed through his lips and the glaze over his eyes dimmed as he rasped.

"My dear, naïve Sango. You shouldn't make such promises. Because if I had my way I would satisfy you over and over and keep you there until you couldn't so much as lift your little finger. Besides, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of my fantasies involving you. After all…I can be very, very creative."

Heat slammed into her gut and she couldn't help the laugh that bubbled to her lips. Trust her hentai houshi to respond to sexual promises in the face of imminent death.

Miroku was sweating with the effort of keeping the blade from her heart, but his gaze was becoming clearer by the second. He looked away from her to Toyotomi. The Lord of the Southern Lands was gazing at them in disbelief.

"No," he whispered. "It's not possible," and then he screamed. "No! Kill her! You must kill her!"

Miroku gritted his teeth against the pull of the other man's voice and felt his arms quiver. With a strength born of his will and his love he cried.

"No!" And strangely enough a phrase that he'd heard his friend Father Manuel utter many times popped into his head. "Get thee behind me Satan! You have no power over me!"

A flash of blue energy erupted and flashed across the ground like a sonic boom. Toyotomi screamed and suddenly Miroku found himself free. Wasting no time, he pulled the enchanted knife away from Sango's chest and attacked her bonds. The chains snapped and he pulled her away from the altar just as a screaming black presence roared from the stone statue near Toyotomi.

The disembodied voice Sango had heard in Toyotomi's bedchamber echoed across the plains.

"No, no, no, no, I will not be defeated. This is my time, my world. You will not take my destiny from me!"

The presence shot from the statue and in a cloud of inky black entered Toyotomi through his eyes and open mouth. The Lord was frozen in a silent scream, his body twitching as the evil from the statue poured into him. When it was over silence, raw and ominous, descended over the sacrificial ground and Toyotomi turned towards them like a marionette on strings. His movements were jerky and unnatural and his eyes, sweet Kami…his eyes.

His eyes were deep, dark, empty sockets of flame and his voice echoed like the rasping of a snake's tongue on cold stone.

"You may have prevented me from obtaining my full power, but it will not save you, monk. I will torture you and the taijiya until you beg for death. I will mare her sweet flesh in front of you until she is so twisted and ugly not even the very demons she's fought will want her. I will do it so her screams stain your ears and her torments cause your eyes to bleed."

With a growl, he raised his hands and purple lightening shot from his fingertips. "Look out," Sango cried and pushed Miroku to the left while she rolled right. The being infecting Toyotomi followed her.

Miroku had been unprepared for her shove and thus he hit his head on the wall near Michi when he landed. Groaning, he sat up and watched in terror as his taijiya danced and tumbled in a display of raw, physical grace, away from the deadly magic streaming from the demon's hands.

He felt his heart seize. Sango, as talented as she was, couldn't keep up such a pace indefinitely, and without weapons they had no way of defending themselves against this enemy. They were well and truly done for if he didn't think of something, and think of it fast.

He shoved his fingers into his robes and pulled out the one sutra he'd manage to finagle with a bit of slight of hand and dumb luck. The gold paper shimmered under the blood-red moon and a crazy, reckless, and suicidal plan began to form.

He looked from the sutra to the blade in his hand and back to the sutra. It glowed faintly with the power of an entire sect of Buddhist monks. Some of which, had surpassed Miroku in power, and all of which had exceeded him in wisdom. They had given him the sutras, knowing full well what he might call on them to do one day.

That day had come. Miroku looked at Sango, his beautiful, sensual, loving, taijiya as she did a handspring away from the demon and rolled near the altar. Kami, she was the most fascinating creature on the planet and the love he felt for her was unlike anything he'd ever known.

She was going to hate him again.

Surprisingly, the thought did not trouble him as much as it should have. At the end of the day, she'd be alive, and time, he knew, healed all scars, even the ones people thought would never fade. A strange kind of peace enveloped him and he used the knife to free a sobbing Michi from his chains.

The boy tried to run to his fallen sister, but Miroku caught him and held him tight.

"Let me go, let me go! I have to get to Mari!" The monk's gripped tightened and he muttered softly.

"No Michi, it's over. She's gone." The boy struggled some more, trying to break his iron grip, but Miroku didn't lessen his hold.

"No please! I can still save her! Let me go." With an impatient sigh he turned Michi around to face him and shook him. This jarred him enough to make him meet his eyes.

"Michi, you must stop. You must listen. Your sister is gone, but you might still be saved."

The boy started shaking his head and muttering how it didn't matter. Miroku shook him again.

"It does matter. Mari would want you to live, Michi, she'd want you to live and grow and become the man she'd always wanted you to become. She would not want you to dishonor her memory by throwing your own life away. Come boy, have courage!"

Something in Miroku's voice must have gotten through to him for he stilled. The monk smiled.

"All right here's the plan." He told him and the boy's eyes went wide.

"B-But that means." Miroku impatiently waved him away.

"Yes, but it can't be helped. Michi, you must promise me, you must hold her if she tries to break through."

Helplessly, he nodded and Miroku nodded back. "Okay then, are we ready." Resolve tightened his youthful features.

"All right then…go!"

They sprinted towards the altar, neither one of them looked back.

Sango was about to dive to the right when she saw Miroku and Michi barreling towards her at breakneck speeds. Before she could part her lips to say anything, Miroku had reached her, knocked her back onto the stone, and the boy had jumped up next to her.

"Miroku, what…" He cut her off with a quick, fierce kiss and pulled away, his indigo orbs boring into hers.

"I love you, Sango," he whispered, harshly. Her eyes went wide and confusion clouded her gaze, but before she could say anything, before she could question his intent, he raised his left hand, slapped the golden sutra on the stone altar, and murmured a few words. Power flared, not only his own, but the power of the sect that the sutra had stored and a golden light formed a barrier around the altar and its occupants.

Purple lightening hit the shield and Sango flinched, but it bounced away harmlessly. Still a bit baffled, Sango kept her eyes trained on Miroku. He was gazing at her with such a look of longing, love, and profound sadness that she felt her heart weep.

"Miroku," she whispered. He grinned at her, reckless and beautiful.

"I love you." he said again. "I'll love you forever." He briefly caressed her cheek. "Until we meet again in the next life, my love."

Sango heard the words, but she didn't process what they meant until she watched him turn towards Toyotomi with a half mad, half elated gleam in his eyes. Suddenly, like the flick of one of Kagome's light switches, it dawned on her.

"No," she breathed and then louder as fear slammed into her gut. "No houshi, you can't!" She screamed. He didn't turn back to her and in desperation she started beating her fists against the energy field, causing it to pulse. Michi clasped his arms around her waist and tried to hold her still, but she fought him like a wild cat.

She watched him in growing horror as he faced Toyotomi, or more correctly, the thing Toyotomi had become, and didn't notice the tears streaming down her cheeks.

The demon before him was pacing and snarling, displeased by the turn of events. A few more moments and he'd have had the taijiya in his power.

"You think your little protective shield will keep her safe for long, monk? You're more foolish than I thought."

Miroku said nothing. Calm and detached he unwounded his prayer beads and leveled his wind tunnel at the demon before him. The sucking void caught him off guard, but he was powerful enough to dig in and hold his ground. Snarling, he spat.

"You think to defeat me with that! It was my power, monk, which cursed you as such. Naraku, that great pretender, absorbed part of my essence into that travesty he called a body, long before your grandfather ever set foot in my lands. I practically created your void and thus there is no way you will be able to hurt me with it. I will simply take it away from you."

Miroku stilled, the irony of the situation not lost on him. All this time he'd sought a way to rid himself of his curse and now the means to his end stood before him. It was enough to cause hysterical laughter to grip his chest. He stamped it down and raised the knife in his left hand, to the side of his right.

"You may have created the void, but not even you are powerful enough to stop it when it is fully unleashed."

With that he sliced his palm and the resounding pressure nearly threw him off his feet. Sango was screaming and wailing and crying, but Miroku barely heard her. All sound was muffled as the vacuum rolled over him.

Even Toyotomi's screams of anger were muffled and stilted. Everything around him swirled, as the void grew and the vortex widened, trees, rocks, shrubs, everything was sucked in by the force of the black pit. Toyotomi tried to dig in, but with a cry of rage, he too, was sucked into the void. The black essence attempted to flee from his body as it was pulled back and struggled to re-enter the statue, but soon even the base of the heavy statue shifted and flew towards the wind tunnel.

The disembodied scream of the demon echoed around him and he looked back to meet Sango's tear clouded eyes. She was yelling herself hoarse and beating against the barrier, desperate to reach him.

"Good-bye, Sango," he whispered, just as the darkness crept down his arms and engulfed him. In the blink of an instant, he was gone and the swirling darkness vanished as quickly as it had come.

The shield that had kept Sango and Michi safe from the void collapsed, now that Miroku was no longer there to feed it and Sango buckled, curled into a ball, and wept with deep, gut retching sobs of despair.

The rest…was silence.


	31. When All Seems Lost

"_**A deep man believes in miracles, waits for them, believes in magic, believes that the orator will decompose his adversary; believes that the evil eye can wither, that the heart's blessing can heal; that love can exalt talent; can overcome all odds."**_

_**Ralph Waldo Emerson**_

InuYasha stared at legion, and could only think one thing. _If I am going to die, I'm taking this fucker with me. _He flexed his claws, felt his demon boil, and was fully prepared to throw himself at Tatsuo, when the demons inside the man suddenly screamed. InuYasha covered his ears.

The sound was horrible, like the shrieking of a million crows being unmercifully tortured. The hanyou had no clue what was going on, but to his amazement Tatsuo backed away and his body started to convulse helplessly. Around him, he watched as the fighting stalled and demons started to retreat, running for the forest as if death nipped at their heals.

Bewildered, he watched in dismay as black, wraith-like creatures fled Tatsuo's body, and with each exodus the corpse shriveled more and more. When the last demon had fled InuYasha looked down at the withered husk and saw it blow away in the wind.

Staggered, he retrieved Tetsusaiga and rushed away, knocking fleeing demons out of his path as he ran. He sniffed the air, and amidst the blood and death he caught the scent of the woman he'd given his being to.

"Kagome," he whimpered and ran faster. She was lying on the ground, surrounded by a group of slayers and Isamu, with her head resting in Riko's lap. He started forward but paused when the healer lifted tear dusted eyes to his. Denial, swift and hard, plowed into him and he ruthlessly pushed everyone aside, dropping to his knees.

Riko was the first to speak. "I'm sorry InuYasha, Kaede is still holding her spirit here but her wound, it's…it's…" She trailed off, unable to tell her friend that the wound Kagome had sustained was fatal. InuYasha sat there on his haunches; his head shaking back and forth in denial.

He crept closer and watched as her eyelids fluttered opened. When she caught sight of him a soft smile turned her lips, before it turned into a pain filled, body racking cough. He was at her side in an instant, adjusting her so her head now rested in his lap and gently brushing her hair out of her face.

"InuYasha," she whispered, and blood dusted her pink lips. Fear, like nothing he'd ever known clenched his heart, and a sheen of tears gathered at the corner of his golden eyes. She reached up and cupped her palm over his cheek, rubbing lightly. He turned into her touch and closed his eyes.

"Kagome," he rasped. She smiled again and he opened his eyes, regarding her steadily. Another coughing fit assailed her and she gasped aloud from the pain. He dug his claws into his palms, ignorant of the blood coursing down his hand.

When she could speak again she asked. "Did we…Did we win?" He chuckled, but it sounded sad. He brushed her hair back again.

"Yeah…yeah we won." She nodded and her eyes fluttered closed, but not before she muttered. "I love…you, InuYasha." Her body went still. Silence stretched and the hanyou froze, his body shaking.

He surged to his feet and turned. Catching sight of his brother, he grabbed the youkai prince by his robes and hauled him towards him.

"You can save her. You can save her like you did before." Sesshomaru regarded him with something akin to pity.

"No…I can not." Rage coursed through the hanyou, and he punched his half-brother in the face, sending him sprawling. He would have leapt after him, but Isamu and a half dozen of the village men held him back. InuYasha was snarling and cursing while Sesshomaru calmly rose to his feet. He dusted his clothes off before facing him. Instead of the anger InuYasha had expected he instead saw a profound sense of resignation.

"Tenseiga can only be used once on the same human. It can not save her again."

"You're just making excuses," he growled. Sesshomaru's lips tightened.

"Are you calling me a lair, brother?"

At those words the fight drained out of the hanyou and he slumped back to the ground next to his fallen mate. Sesshomaru was many things, but even he knew his brother's ridged sense of honor made lying impossible for him. With cry of despair he gathered his mate's body against his own and howled.

Across the mountains and chorus of howls joined his, as the wolves of the land heard his mourning cry. It was eerie and heartbreaking all at once. Riko wept freely now and Isamu knelt down, pulling her into his arms. She buried her head in the crook of his neck and let her tears stain his armor.

The howls subsided and the hanyou buried his face in Kagome's hair. For the first time in a long, long time, he cried.

* * *

Kaede felt the last of her strength waver as she teetered and fell over unconscious. She used the last of her power to hold Kagome's spirit, but even she knew that it was temporary. Soon, the pull of the underworld would grab the young miko, and nothing they could do would stop it.

She sighed in her sleep. She was tired…so very, very tired. She'd lived a lot longer than she'd ever thought possible while her sister, her beautiful, talented, and powerful sister, had embraced death long before her time should have come.

Kikyo should have been the one to survive and she still often wondered why it was she the gods had allowed to become twisted with time and aged with wisdom. It was, perhaps, the most perplexing question she'd had throughout her long life, and she'd come to realize through the years, that the reason had been staring back at her the moment she'd looked into young Kagome's features for the first time.

She smiled, or at least she felt as if she did. That girl was more powerful than all of them and she still didn't realize it. She couldn't allow her to die before her time, not again, not like Kikyo had. The answer to her unconscious prayer appeared before her. She found herself back on top of his mountain top, but this time the castle in the distance was burning.

"I see Sango and Miroku have won the day."

Komoku chuckled and came to stand beside her. "Had you any doubts?" She smiled ruefully.

"Nay, my lord. The taijiya and the monk, they make a good pair." She sobered slightly and turned to him. She couldn't feel Miroku's spiritual presence and she instantly knew why.

"Is he lost to her?"

Komoku sighed.

"I am not able to say. The houshi's fate is not mine to hold. Young Kagome's however..."

Kaede glanced at him and nodded.

"There is always a price though? Be there not?"

He looked into the distance and nodded once. "Always astute, my Kaede. Do you know what it is?"

She smiled, and as he gazed at her the wrinkles of time and age started to slowly lift. Her heavy body grew slender, her skin smoothed, and her one twinkling brown eye became two twinkling brown eyes. Kaede now stood before him, a girl of seventeen winters instead of the matron of before. She wasn't enchantingly beautiful, not like Kikyo had been, but the warmth and light that were always so much a part of her nature, shown through like a beacon.

He smiled and laced his fingers with hers. "I see you've made your choice." She smiled and nodded.

Her voice, clear and smooth, instead of aged and raspy, replied.

"I have had a good many years, a good run as Kagome would say. It be time for me to let those of a new generation take over the responsibilities. I only asked one more thing, my lord."

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it and she blushed prettily. "Anything, I've waited a great many years for you my Kaede."

"The boy, Kohaku…be it ye power?" He frowned thoughtfully and nodded again.

"Yes love, I do believe it is." With that he wrapped his arm around her now slim waist, waved his hand, and they vanished. Back in the village, the ground under the body of the elderly miko pulsed once, twice and a wave of power erupted from her. Gasps and cries could be heard throughout the village. The wave washed over all, and a peace unlike any other fell upon them.

Kaede and Komoku were going home, but they had one final task before them.

* * *

Near the fallen elderly miko, Kohaku felt his body jerk and twitch. When his eyes finally opened he collapsed to the ground and panted like a winded marathon runner. Slowly, he started to comprehend his surroundings and was surprised to see Chie and Benji leaning over him, pouring some strange liquid down his throat.

Chie was the first to notice his open eyes and she squealed in delight, tugging on her friend's sleeve.

"Benji, look, he's awake. Kohaku's awake." The boy pushed himself into a sitting position and shook his head like a dog, trying to clear it.

He looked around blearily. The battle appeared to be over and it looked as if they'd won. Groggy, he smacked his lips together and promptly gagged.

"W-What did you give me?" Benji beamed at him and held up the bottle.

"Mom uses it when someone gets bite by a snake. It makes them better." Kohaku took the bottle with shaking fingers and noticed the tag.

"Anti-venom," he muttered and pushed himself to his feet, only to fall back down. Chie tugged on his arm concerned.

"You need to rest." He nodded again and would have let his eyelids flutter shut if he hadn't heard Benji say.

"Chie, what's this?" He bent down to pick something up and she crowded around him, her eyes wide.

"Ohhh, it's pretty. Can I have it Benji?" Benji frowned down at the object, the way only five year olds can and said.

"I don't think so. I think I better give it to Kagome. It looks like the ones she keeps in her bottle."

At that Kohaku's eyes went wide and he croaked. "Benji, let me see what you've found." The smaller boy looked guilty for a minute and then reluctantly made his way over to Kohaku. He opened his hand and the older boy started, his hand instantly flying to his back.

What he found had his hands shaking even more than before. _Kami, _he thought, _it can't be. _

Trembling, he ran his fingers over the wound that should have been gaping between his shoulder blades. All he found was a scare. Snatching his hand back, he looked from the shard to the sky and back again, tears pouring down his cheeks. Chie stepped forward and wrapped her small fingers around his wrist.

"Kohaku?" He looked at the girl and the boy and pulled them into a hug.

"I'm free," he whispered. "I'm free."

* * *

InuYasha was still holding Kagome and rocking her still form back and forth, when he suddenly felt her fingers twitch. He froze. Pulling away, he looked down at the girl in his arms and felt hope bloom. When her eyes fluttered open and she smiled at him he almost leapt out of his own skin.

"K-Kagome?" Hearing the strange note in is voice, Isamu and Riko and the others turned towards them and a collective gasp echoed. Riko, her eyes wide, asked.

"InuYasha, she's…she's…"

"Alive," he finished for her. Kagome was more than just alive, she was fast becoming irritably.

"InuYasha," she whined. "Ease up a bit, you're squishing me." He immediately loosened his hold and watched in awe as she sat up. His gaze went to her stomach but where a gaping hole had once been, all he saw now was pink flesh.

"Kagome…your wound." Confused, she followed his gaze and looked down.

"Huh? What wound. What's going on InuYasha?"

"I believe I can answer ye that child." Startled at the sound of the strange voice addressing her, Kagome looked up and gasped softly.

The woman before her was dressed in the red and white traditional garb of a miko and looked to be around her age. Behind her a shimmering man in old fashioned armor stood at her back, his arm around her waist. The girl smiled.

"Ye looked shocked to see me, young Kagome. Be it that you don't know who I be?"

Kagome's mouth worked back and forth and finally her lips parted with one questioning word. "K-Kaede?" InuYasha jumped up at that, his own eyes wide.

"Are you nuts Kagome? There's no way this can be the old bag?"

Komoku scowled and waved his hand, knocking the hanyou on the ground. He got up with a growl, and would have attacked, had not Kagome sighed in exasperation and muttered.

"Sit boy!" The prayer beads around his neck glowed and he found himself eating dirt.

"Kagome!" he whined, she sniffed.

"Serves you right." To Kaede she said. "Lady Kaede, how…why?" The miko smiled and rested her head against Komoku's chest.

"Don't fret, child. I have made my choice. I will go with Lord Komoku. The villagers will look to ye now child, and I have no doubt ye will make me proud."

It finally dawned on Kagome what she was seeing and tears started leaking out of her eyes.

"Kaede…are you…" She smiled gently and nodded.

"Do not mourn me. I had a good life and now I can be with Komoku. It is well." She waved her hand and the beads of subjugation released the hanyou. He stumbled to his feet and glared at them both. She eyed him indulgently.

"Ye take care of her InuYasha. I will be counting on ye."

"Keh, whatever," he scoffed, but a hint of sadness touched his eyes. She reached out and brushed his cheek and his lips twisted into a half smile.

"You always had too much faith in me, you old witch." She laughed.

"And ye never had enough in thyself. Goodbye InuYasha, Kagome. I shall miss thee."

With that final statement Kaede and Komoku shimmered and were gone. InuYasha grunted and pulled Kagome up.

"InuYasha what are you…" He cut her off with a brief, harsh kiss and muttered.

"You are never allowed to die on me again. You hear me?" Her chocolate eyes went soft and she snuggled against him.

"Okay," she whispered.

He sighed. She was in his arms, she was safe. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Silently, he thanked the old hag and in the distance his sensitive ears picked up a laugh.

The wind whispered. "Take care of her."

_Always, _he thought. _Always and forever._


	32. Lazarus

**_"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures." _**

**_William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar_**

Sango wasn't sure how long she had spent weeping on top of that stone monstrosity. It could have been weeks, months, or even years. Time had no meaning and the only thing she'd been aware of had been her soul retching grief. Staring into the fire she poked it and wasn't surprised to see the flames swirl and dance and form his smiling face.

Tears leaked from her eyes again and she angrily brushed them away. She couldn't get over how weak she was, and it disgusted her.

"Damn you, houshi," she whispered. Beyond her, Michi whimpered in his sleep, but quickly quieted down. She glanced at the boy; made sure he was not going to awaken from one of his many nightmares and turned back to the flames.

She'd been on the road for four days, ever since she'd come to her senses enough to realize that she needed to get Michi away from there and just long enough for it to really sink in that he was gone. This time, she knew, he wouldn't be coming back.

She looked at the boy again. She found it easier these days to focus on his heartache instead of her own. Poor boy…they couldn't even bury his sister, she and the others had been sucked into…

_Damn you…just…Damn you Miroku! _

The tears that hovered too near the surface nowadays continued to fall, blurring her vision. Kami, her chest hurt! She rubbed against the ache she was sure would never leave her. Strangely too, the place between her thighs felt empty and barren. Her soul…she didn't want to think about her soul.

She was so…so angry with him! How dare he! How dare he leave her like this? She wanted to hit something so badly that her fingers shook with the effort. The boy whimpered again and some of the churning anger in her gut dissipated a little.

He'd lost his sister, lost her in the most horrific way imaginable. Sango wiped her eyes again and steeled herself against her own soul deep pain. She needed to be strong for him, needed to get him to her village, and hopefully find someone there willing to take him in.

After that, there would be time enough left for her to mourn.

_After all, _she thought bitterly. _I have my whole life ahead of me, don't I Miroku?_

She only hoped she'd be able to face her life without him.

* * *

Miroku had always embraced the possibility of his own death with a kind of laconic acceptance. He'd lived with the threat of the wind tunnel for so long that any fright he'd experienced for the shrouded specter had long since turned into disinterested apathy.

Not that he'd wanted to die. Oh no, in fact with the memories of Sango and their recent time together, he'd wanted nothing more than to live with her forever…if such a thing had been possible.

He looked around again and blinked in bewilderment. He'd never thought the wind tunnel would look like this inside. If he'd have known, he might have let it take him even earlier. Lush verdant rolling fields stretched out before him and in the distance he could just make out the bright, sapphire blue of a waterfall.

With nothing better to do, he started strolling leisurely towards the falls and almost swallowed his tongue when he got close enough to see really make out any details. His hentai supreme tendencies obviously hadn't dulled in death, and he spent more than a few minutes admiring the view.

Three intoxicatingly beautiful women stood under the spray of the falls, washing each other indiscriminately. It was functional, erotic, and sensual all at once, and Miroku was surprised to find he wasn't even remotely tempted to shuck his own clothes and join them.

He turned away from the sight and looked to the sky, his heart aching painfully.

_Damn you Miroku, _whispered on the cooling breeze and he closed his eyes.

_I'm sorry my love. I'm sorry I left you behind, for always leaving you behind. You may hate me now, but I rest easy in the knowledge that you are alive and whole. You are strong my Sango, strong enough to survive without me and I know…you're heart will heal in time. You have too much love inside of you for it not. Love, I pray, you will give to another, much worthier man than I could ever hope to be._

Miroku was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed one of the women disengage herself from her companions, throw an ornate kimono over her naked form, and walk towards him. She stopped to study him before saying.

"My ancestor must have seen something very special in you monk, to love you as she does. Tell me, are you worthy of it?"

He smirked slightly, opened his eyes, and turned towards the woman who'd addressed him.

"Is any man truly ever worthy of such a woman, Priestess Midoriko?"

She smiled benevolently and nodded.

"Wise, as well as handsome." He nodded and cocked his head contemplatively.

"This proves what I've come to suspect. I'm not inside my wind tunnel…am I?" She frowned slightly and shook her head.

"No monk, if you were inside the wind tunnel I fear it would look something more like this."

She waved her hand and Miroku jumped with a start. The verdant landscape was gone and he suddenly found himself in a black, endlessly cold void teeming with creatures best forgotten. He saw them all, all the demons he, his father, and his father's father, had ever taken. The place reeked of rotting meat, of death, and of suffering…he shuddered.

It was a bleak and lonely hell, not fit for any being. Brusquely, as quick as it appeared the inner working of his kazaana vanished and he found himself next to the waterfall once more. He turned grave indigo eyes on the priestess and she gave him a gentle look.

"Unpleasant," she whispered.

"Y-Yes." He turned away from her. Were his father and grandfather stuck in that hell? He was almost afraid to ask. She must have read his expression because she said.

"Have courage monk, you father and grandfather are no more in that evil place than you are. Upon their death they were tested and measured. They are at peace."

The fear that had gripped him subsided and he sighed in relief.

"I..." he said, helpless. "I-I'm glad." He changed the subject.

"Why am I here Midoriko?" She moved to stand beside him.

"Because I wanted to meet the man who'd captured Sango's heart. Kirara loves her very much you know and from what I've seen of her, she is a remarkable young woman. Now you will answer my original question. Do you feel you are worthy of her?"

Miroku sighed. "I think…that I love her, more than my own existence. That, in and of itself, is remarkable. Before I met Sango, I truly enjoyed the more pleasurable pursuits life had to offer. I thought nothing of bedding a beautiful woman, imbedding more sake than was necessary, or even swindling a wealthy man out of his usually ill gotten gains. Of all of those I really, really enjoyed fornicating. I have a deep appreciation for beautiful women and I always respect those I took my pleasure in and gave pleasure to, but with Sango…

Frankly, when I first met her she scared me senseless because she made me feel…too much. So to answer your question, am I worthy of her? Is any man ever truly worthy of the woman he loves?"

Midoriko smiled. "I can see why she loves you monk." She paused and the silence stretched. She finally broke it by saying.

"Suzu, Kyoko, come and meet Miroku." He jerked, knowing those names, and his gaze flew to the women leaving the water and coming onto shore.

"Are they…" he whispered.

"Yes," she answered, already knowing his unspoken question.

"Kami," he breathed and watched as they drew kimonos similar to Midoriko's over their bodies. These were the women his father and his grandfather had traveled with…these were the women they had inadvertently betrayed. Nervous, he eyed them as the crossed over to him and the priestess. Midoriko introduced them and he took a moment to study the women who'd been Miyatsu and his father's companions.

Kyoko was exotic, with rich dark hair and green eyes that shamed the verdant foliage surrounding them. She gazed at him with a regal, disdainful look, master to peasant. He smiled inwardly. He could instantly see how his father could have fallen for her. He always had a thing for haughty beauties.

Suzu was her polar opposite. She was just as beautiful, but her beauty was softer, earthier. She had warm dark auburn hair and kind gray eyes. Her compassion and nobility were heightened by her carriage. Miyatsu probably hadn't even known what hit him.

Not surprisingly it was Kyoko who spoke to him first.

"So this is the one that finally took Toyotomi down. He doesn't look like much," she sniffed.

"Be nice, Kyoko," Suzu admonished and then turned to Miroku with a deep, respectful bow. "We are in your debt sir, anything you wish of us is yours; you have only to ask."

Miroku smiled and looked from one woman to the next and instantly knew what he wanted to ask.

"Noble ladies, I only ask one boon. I ask you to forgive my family."

Both women flinched and their eyes turned sad.

"What you ask…it is impossible," Kyoko whispered. Miroku sighed, stepped forward, and took her hands in his. Startled and questioning green eyes flew to his.

"I was just a young boy when my father returned from his own quest, but to this day I will never forget the torment I'd seen in his eyes. I may not know exactly what happened, but I do know that my father grieved as I have never seen he grieve before. He was never the same after that. Forgive him; please…for I know that if he'd had a chance, he would have traded his life for yours in an instant."

The polished, aristocratic mask cracked before him and her lips trembled slightly. He was even surprised to see a few tears leak from her eyes. She wiped them away before disentangling their hands.

"I…had no idea, I'd always thought…" She trailed off, visible regained her composure, and waved her hand dismissively. "Fine, fine, I grant your boon, monk. Your father is forgiven."

He nodded and turned his attention to Suzu. She gazed on him with soft, kind orbs.

"Priestess, I am sorry that I can not tell you how my grandfather reacted upon your death. I never got to know him due to the curse that Naraku had bestowed upon my family, but I have been told that I am much like him. Miyatsu loved women and couldn't bear to see a female in distress. Knowing thus, I know that if it had been me, I would have done everything with-in my power to keep you from harm. I have been told he loved you, deeply. It is all I can offer you."

Suzu smiled sadly. "It is enough, monk. I also bestow my forgiveness." He nodded and smiled at her and she nodded back, took Kyoko's hand, and tugged.

"Come…he and the priestess…have things to discuss." Kyoko looked down her nose at him once more, nodded imperiously, and followed the other woman. He watched them until they disappeared into a mountain pass behind the waterfall, and turned to Midoriko. She was smiling at him.

"Thank you, monk. You have done what no other has been able to do for these many long years."

"And what is that?" Her smile turned indulgent.

"You've brought them peace…and now I believe it is time." He cocked an eyebrow.

"Time?" Her features turned mysterious.

"Yes…time for you to take your leave. Kami-sama wished for me to tell you that you have come to his realm too soon. It is time for you to return." His eyes went wide.

"W-What do you mean?" She smiled radiantly.

"I mean…you are not to remain here. It is not your time. Return to whence you came, monk and above all else…give Sango my love."

Miroku stood before her; mouth gaping as comprehension slowly infiltrated his shocked mind. He was…she was going to…

He didn't get a chance to complete that thought. Suddenly, the world tilted and a rush of sensation blinded him. He felt a pull in his abdomen and had the very strange feeling of falling through air before he crashed and darkness descended.

When he awoke, groggy, disoriented, and in a surprising amount of pain, he was shocked to find himself lying naked in the middle of a deep crater. He groaned and pushed himself to unsteady feet, looking around in awe.

He was back in the clearing, standing in the middle of the crater created by his wind tunnel. Abruptly, he lifted his right hand and turned the palm up, only to still.

Fascinated, Miroku used his left hand to rub along the smooth expanse of unbroken skin.

His kazaana was gone.

Joy, hot and bright, suffused his soul and he started laughing. He was laughing so hard that he fell to his knees and had to hold his ribs in, least they burst from the pressure. Birds squawked in annoyance as his laughter echoed across the mountains and down to the valleys below.

As soon as his laughter started, so did the tears, and he found himself weeping like a baby. So many emotions bubbled beneath the surface that he didn't even know where to begin. He must have looked like a lunatic, a naked man laughing and crying indiscriminately while sitting in the dirt at the bottom of a crater. He found he didn't care, didn't care in the slightest.

Moments, hours, weeks, or years could have passed, and he would have been no more aware of it than a fish in trapped in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean, with no sunlight reaching, and no way to mark the passage of time. Slowly, he came back to himself and one glorious thought echoed through his consciousness.

_I'm alive._

He was alive and so was Sango and he was no longer cursed. He had everything he'd ever wanted. Feeling lighter than he had in years he leapt to his feet and started looking for a way out of the hole he was stuck in. So intent was he on his search that he didn't see the shadow from the man standing at the edge of the indenture above him until he spoke.

"Miroku my boy! What are you doing down there and why are you naked?"

He started, looked up, and smiled like a mad man.

"Manuel, you old lush! What are you doing here?" The fat priest rubbed the back of his head nervously and shrugged.

"I was in the village just east of here when the Lord spoke to me in a dream. He seemed to think it was my Christian duty to find your heathen soul and led me here." Miroku laughed.

"I thought you didn't hold with divine epiphany?" Manuel looked rueful and shrugged.

"Yes well, when I return to Portugal it looks like I owe Sister Emiline an apology. You need a hand getting out of there?"

Miroku nodded and Father Manuel retreated, looking around for something to pull his friend up with. He found some vines that looked long enough and threw the end to him. After three attempts and much cursing on both their parts, he finally managed to pull the monk free. Miroku collapsed at the edge, panting from exertion.

When he could speak again he said. "Thanks friend, you showed up just in time." The priest's face was red and he was wheezing a little, but he managed to say.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways. Now, how about we find you some clothes and leave this place. It's giving me the willies."

Miroku nodded and they walked a ways until they came upon Toyotomi's castle. Miroku wasn't surprised to find it abandoned. With some reluctance, he found the room he'd been assigned to when the first arrived, retrieved his spare clothing, and surprisingly found his staff when he went in search of the armory.

They were on the road not long after and he was glad to be rid of the solemn castle. In fact, he thought it would be poetic justice for the edifice that had housed such cruel and malignant evil to rot away on this lonely mountain side, empty and forgotten.

Miroku and Father Manuel caught up and reminisced as they traveled. It was almost as if they had never parted ways to begin with. Sundown was soon upon them and before stopping for the night the priest cocked his head and said.

"You seem happier, my boy, lighter of heart. Did you finally find what you had been seeking?"

Miroku smiled cryptically. "I did priest and she's waiting for me. She just doesn't know it yet."


	33. The Road Home

_**The long and winding road -- That leads to your door -- Will never disappear – I've seen that road before -- It always leads me her -- Lead me to you door**__**.**_

**_The wild and windy night -- That the rain washed away -- Has left a pool of tears -- Crying for the day -- Why leave me standing here -- Let me know the way._**

**_The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road_**

Sango stood under the night sky, bathed in the light of the half moon and shivered slightly. Winter had come upon them and the air had turned frigid. It had been almost two moon cycles since she returned to her village. Two cycles of slowly healing and trying to bury the ghost of one hentai monk, she'd been less than successful.

He still invaded her thoughts and haunted her dreams the way he always had. She was almost resigned to the fact that he always would.

Restless, she followed her usually path and headed towards the cherry tree that loomed over the graves of her people. She had no idea why the graveyard brought her comfort; perhaps it was because as she walked by the mounds of earth she was reminded of all she'd lost…and what she'd gained.

InuYasha, Kagome, and Shippo, her friends…her family, they were the ones who'd found her decimated village and had buried the dead, while her hentai monk had blessed them. They were the ones that had stood at the gates and defended her people while she and Miroku had been locked in their own battle.

When she'd heard the details, heard what had almost been lost, what had been lost, and what had been gained, she'd cried all over again.

Gods, they'd almost lost Kagome. She didn't even want to think about it. And in the end they had lost Kaede, but with her loss they'd received not one, but two miracles. Kagome was alive and Kohaku…Kami Kohaku…was free.

Since she'd returned he hadn't had one of his rages for weeks, and with each passing day he seemed to rediscover the boy she'd known. The joy it gave her almost soothed her grieving heart.

Isamu had finally married Riko. She'd been ecstatic when she'd heard and could think of no one better for her friend. They'd had the ceremony two weeks ago. It had been outside, under this very tree, and although simple, it had been beautiful.

Kagome and InuYasha were mated… and it was about damn time. She and Kagome had spent the first few nights of her return locked away in her hut while her friend had let her cry and rage and rail against the heavens.

InuYasha…well, when he'd heard what had happened to Miroku he taken off into the forest and returned a week later. He hadn't said were he'd gone and Kagome hadn't pried. She simply kissed him hello, hugged him tight, and led him into the hut she'd been staying in when she hadn't been taking care of Sango.

Sango had watched the reunion with a detachment born of her grief and it wasn't until many weeks later that she'd finally been able to tell her best friend that she was happy for her. Kagome, in her understanding way, had rolled her eyes and pulled Sango towards the hot spring, saying that she really, really needed a bath.

She sighed and hugged herself, walking aimlessly among the graves. She was happy for her friends, truly she was, but their happiness had a way of driving home, like nothing else could, all that she'd lost.

She paused and looked down at her stomach, splaying her fingers across her abdomen. It was why she hadn't told them yet. She wanted to keep the knowledge to herself a little longer, cherish it, and relish it, and selfishly indulge in it.

Miroku, bless him and damn him, had not been content to go out in a blaze of glory, he'd had to go and leave his legacy behind. All those times throughout the years when he'd asked her to bare his children, and he wasn't even going to be around to see what his child looked like.

She smiled slightly and rubbed her hand up and down. With her luck it was going to be a boy and he'd come out a miniature charmer, as flirtatious and appealing as his hentai father. Kami help her, she was going to need one of those shotguns from Kagome's time just to keep the girls from rioting.

She rubbed her belly and willed her fingers not to tremble. She was with child and as wonderful as the thought was, it scared her a little. She'd never known her mother and didn't know the first thing about being one.

She was a taijiya, a warrior, when had she ever had a chance to learn all those womanly things that being a mother required? As scared as she was, however, the cautious joy in her heart couldn't be denied.

It may not be the same thing as having Miroku by her side, but she had his child…their child. It was going to be enough. It had to be.

Sighing again, Sango wandered over to the tree and sunk down, leaning her back against the bark. She looked up and a soft smile played at her lips. The stars were beautiful tonight. A languid feeling moved over her and she must have dozed, because she didn't hear him until he spoke.

"You looked beautiful in the moonlight taijiya, like a celestial maiden." Groggily she blinked open her eyes and focused on the figure in the shadows. Her brow furrowed.

"Do I know you?" The figure chuckled and stepped closer. Moonlight now bathed his form, Sango gasped and scrambled to her feet.

"I-It can't be. Y-You're dead," she breathed and groped behind her. The man before her smiled in that lecherous way she remembered and moved closer to her.

_Kami, it wasn't possible, couldn't be true. Was he a ghost? It had to be a trick, a trap, a cruel and sadistic joke. Or maybe her crushing grief had simply allowed her mind to snap._

But he was still speaking and he didn't appear to be a ghost.

"As you can see, Sango, rumors of my demise have been exaggerated."

He took another step closer and quick as lightening her hand blurred. He froze and gulped and raised his hands, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. She was so close he could see the swirls of amber in her cinnamon eyes, eyes that now glared at him with seething anger.

"Sango, let's be reasonable yes?" She shifted the dagger she'd placed under his chin and growled.

"Who are you? Lie to me and I will cut your throat before you can draw your next breath."

Miroku felt sweat roll down his back as he gazed at the woman before him. This was not going at all the way he'd imagined, but then, he should have known that he'd have to do a little convincing.

After all, she'd seen the wind tunnel take him. The question became, how in Kami's name was he suppose to convince her it was him, before she flicked her wrist and sent him back to where he'd come from?

"Sango, you must listen to me. It's me. It's Miroku." The blade dug deeper and he winced as the tip pierced his skin. A thin trickle of blood rolled down his throat.

"You're lying. I saw Miroku die and where he went no one returns. I'll only ask you once more. Who are you?"

He felt a shiver go down his spine when she narrowed her eyes. Kami, she was serious. Thinking quickly, he did the only thing he could think to do to convince her it was him. He reached down and ran his palm over her backside and grinned lustfully.

"Run the blade true for now that I have caressed heaven I can greet Kami-sama with open arms!"

_Kami t-that grin, that grope. I'd know that feeling anywhere._

Sango's eyes widened and the knife at his throat trembled before tumbling from her limp fingers. It clattered at his feet. Miroku was the only man she'd ever met that would risk death to grab her ass. His actions convinced her as nothing else could have.

"I-It can't be." She brought her hand to her lips and breathed. "M-Miroku?"

He stepped forward and his warm breath fanned her lips, while his arms snaked around her waist and pulled her against his body.

He rested his head on her forehead and closed his eyes contentedly, breathing deep.

"My Sango…how I've missed you." He opened his vibrant indigo eyes. She was still staring at him in disbelief and his lips twitched. He leaned in and captured her lips, teasing the petal soft folds open with the tip of his tongue. Her eyelids fluttered helplessly and she opened for him. He deepened the kiss, plunging his tongue into her heat and drinking deeply.

They broke off when the need to breathe overwhelmed them and he rested his forehead against hers again, bringing his left hand up to caress her cheek.

"Still irresistible I see," he muttered. Her cinnamon orbs softened and tears pricked the corners. She didn't know how, and she didn't know why, but it was him…it was Miroku. She raised her hands and ran them over his face, reveling in the feel of stubble and warm skin.

"It is you. Kami, Miroku h-how is this possible?" He kissed her again and she went willingly. Soon his kisses grew more insistent and Sango's discordant emotions bubbled to the surface. Passion and pain dueled. Kami she wanted to feel him, needed to feel him, had to prove to herself he was real. With a cry she grabbed the lapels of his robes and ripped the purple fabric away from his body.

"Kami Sango, I missed you," he breathed. She kissed him violently and shrugged out of her clothing. She pulled away and he couldn't decipher all the emotions in her cinnamon gaze. She was kissing him again, rubbing her tight nipples against his bare chest insistently, and he was swiftly losing his mind.

"Inside me, come inside me. I ache, Miroku."

Her words were hot and fervent and the animal inside him responded. He dropped his clothes and his erection bobbed free, hard and glistening. With a growl he had her back to the tree, gripped her luscious ass between his palms, prayer beads digging in and rubbing the skin, pulled her up, and slammed his cock into her glistening sex. She cried out and wrapped her powerful legs around his waist as he pounded into her over and over and over again.

There was rage in her movements and lust and heartache and pain and…love.

Sango buried her face in the crook of his neck, thrusting down to meet him. Biting her lips she felt the pressure between her thighs build and build, each delicious thrust sending her higher.

Kami it hurt and felt glorious all at once. The need to come, to fulfill the physical ache between her thighs, became unbearable, and she could tell he felt the same way because his hard thrusts grew erratic.

"Harder houshi, take me harder," she pleaded. He responded by slamming his shaft into her to the hilt until it touched her womb. This violent coupling was becoming too much, a punishment and a penance. He was murmuring incoherently now and she was gasping and pleading and begging and finally, finally she was coming.

"O-Oh Kami, I-I…O-Oh gods, o-oh g-gods!"

"Fuck Sango!" He screamed and they reached the end in a blinding flash of white light.

When it was over, he didn't move out of her, he simply collapsed and rolled them until she was resting on his chest while he ran his fingers through her sweat soaked dark hair.

She looked up and gazed at him with that same mixture of awe and disbelief she'd had since the moment she'd realized it was him. Slowly though, it started to give way and a new flood of conflicting emotions welled with-in her.

She came to herself with a start, caught the contented little smile on his face, and exploded.

"Y-You lecherous bastard!" She yelled and punched him in the gut. He made an oomph sound as the wind was knocked out of him. She let his softening member slide of her heat, pushed herself up, and angrily started gathering her discarded clothing. Miroku was too busy trying to remember how to breathe.

She had just shrugged into her juban and was wrestling with her kimono when he collected himself enough to stand. He grabbed her arm and spun her, thunder crackling beneath his indigo orbs.

"What the hell was that for Sango!" She tried to pull away from him, but when he wouldn't let her go she settled for moving in and beating her fists against his chest.

"You bastard, you fucking bastard. I thought you were dead! For two months I thought you were dead! Do you have any idea what I went through? Who gave you the right to decided that my life was more important than your own? How selfish can you be? Don't you know, don't you realize how much I love you? But no, you had to go and sacrifice yourself. I didn't ask you to do that. I didn't want that!"

Her strength lagged and she was crying freely now and he did the only thing he could think of. He caught her against his chest and held on for dear life.

"Sango," he muttered. "Shh, my love, don't cry, it's all right. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you through that and I promise never to do it again."

She cried even harder if it were possible and but soon her tears started to dry up. She hiccupped a couple of times and pulled away, slightly embarrassed.

He didn't let her get too far.

"Feeling better?" She flushed and nodded.

"I-I'm sorry, I've been a little…emotional lately." He rubbed her arms.

"No, I'm sorry; I should have realized how shocking this would be, but when I saw you. Well, you know the level of self control I seem to have when it pertains to you."

She grimaced and nodded, before looking away.

"So, how long are you staying?" He stilled suddenly and watched her warily.

"Why would you ask that?" She shrugged.

"The quest is over and you told me from the beginning that you would be leaving. I want to know how long we have."

Miroku blinked and much to her surprise he started laughing, he was laughing so hard she was afraid he'd crack a rib any moment. When he calmed down enough to speak again, he found her staring at him in bewilderment.

"I-I'm sorry," he chuckled. "I'd forgotten…you see I'm so use to wearing them that I didn't even think…" He trailed off and to her astonishment started to unbind his cursed hand. She leapt forward to stop him.

"Miroku no! Don't!" But she was too late. He freed the cloth, let it drop, and she could only stare. Stunned, she reached out her palm and ran it against his, feeling the warm, pink flesh he'd revealed.

"I figured since I no longer have to worry about the wind tunnel taking you I might stick around for awhile. Say…forever. That is…if you'll have me?"

Sango looked from his hand to his eyes and back again, and the realization what it all meant finally sunk in. Miroku was staying; they were going to be together. Tears stung and she launched herself into his arms. He caught her and held.

"I'd like that Miroku. I'd like it very much," she whispered fiercely. He pulled away after a moment, dropped to his knees, and grasped her hand.

"Sango my love. Will you marry me and bare my children?" Sango smirked, leaned down and brushed her lips against his.

"Yes Miroku, I'll marry you…as for baring your children." She grabbed his right hand and placed the palm against her abdomen.

"I'm already doing that."

Miroku's eyes widened. "S-Sango you're…you're…truly?" She nodded, happy tears leaking. He spread his fingers over her slightly rounded stomach.

For the first time in a long time he felt that the fates and the gods no longer despised him. Kami, she was having his child, she was going to marry him. His weary journey was over.

Home. Sweet Kami, he was finally home.

_**Fin**_

**A/N: Welcome to the end of my saga, hope you all had as much fun reading as I did writing it. And to Pointy O, thanks for all your support and reviews, and yes funny, random stories. It's been a pleasure, girl.**


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